


Dragon Hoard

by CalmWaveofChaos, Foreverindept



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Dragons, Gen, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, dragon matt, minecraft au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2019-05-04 05:44:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 25,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14586237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalmWaveofChaos/pseuds/CalmWaveofChaos, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foreverindept/pseuds/Foreverindept
Summary: After a quick trip to the nether the lads (and Ryan) encounter a nether dragon. The dragon luckily seems to only want to collect for its hoard but this might start the beginning of a beautiful friendship.





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Ryan The Dragon Knight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3065237) by [TheLOAD](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLOAD/pseuds/TheLOAD). 



> So I read all the Matt Bragg fanfiction and now I'm here. This is m first fanfic if you have suggestions I am glad to here it.

Jeremy poofed through the nether portal after the other lads. Stepping onto the heated floor of the nether, he looked around to make sure there were no immediate threats nearby. Ryan came out after. “I think Geoff and Jack are gonna notice if we're all out.”  
“Don't be a little sausage Ryan,” said Gavin as he grabbed a hold of Michaels shoulders. “We’ll be back after we get nether wart for Jeremy's potions.”

“Yeah don't be a sausage Ryan, we've got like an hour before Geoff realizes anything's different,” Michael agreed as they all headed towards the nether castle.  
“Besides, Geoff still thinks I'm helping Lindsay and Trevor fix the redstone in one of the new builds,” Jeremy added.  
“Alright, but if he gets mad I am immediately putting any and all blame on Gavin.”

“Wot?!?! Ryan?!?!” squawked Gavin, “Boi, you'll back me up right boi?”

“Fuck no this was your idea.”

As they bickered Jeremy noticed slight movement out of the corner of his eye. He stopped to try and follow it and realised that it was... part of the wall moving? On closer inspection he realised it was actually the scales of a dragon! It was sniffing near the nether portal, seemingly trying to find something. “Uh guys!?” called Jeremy. “Guys! Run!” he yelled as he raced towards the nether castle. “Oh fuck!” screamed Michael as the others began after him.

They started running to the entrance of castle. The dragon seemed to notice a commotion and flew over them and in front of the entrance. It laid down and curled its tail near the lads, effectively cutting off any escape they could have. It lowered its body to appear as non-threatening as possible. They all froze as Ryan slowly began pushing the boys behind him. The dragon was huge; bigger than the entrance. Half of it was covered in scales that matched the nether around them, and the other half appeared to be feathers that were darker and much closer the brick of the castle. It lowered its head and began sniffing at Ryan. Ryan for his part held the boys closer as he locked eyes with the dragon. The dragon let out a small whine sniffling at his legs. “I think it's just confused about us. It's probably not used to humans, just don't provoke it.” said Ryan.

The dragon started to sniff at all the lads, pushing them around. They all were tense, scared to make any sudden movements as it pressed its warm nose to them. As it got to Jeremy it began to perk up as it sniffed him. It pushed him farther away from the others. Michael began to reach for his sword but Ryan held his arm. The dragon opened its mouth and gently began to nip at his bag. Jeremy pulled off his bag and held it toward the dragon, assuming that's what it wanted. The dragon pushed at the bag whining. “What does it want?” Jeremy said in a low voice to the others.

“Something in your bag, maybe? What do you have, maybe it smells food?” Ryan responded with.

Jeremy quickly opened the bag. “All I have are my tools and left over redstone?” he said, pulling out a diamond pickaxe and a handful of the redstone. The dragon pressed his snout to the redstone covered hand and let out a happy trill.

“... does it… want redstone?” questioned Gavin.

Jeremy, as calm as he could manage, pulled out all of his redstone and put it on the floor in front of the dragon. It gave out another happy trill as it curled a paw around the redstone pile. It slowly raised its wings and with a big burst of air it flew over them, into a cavern above the nether castle. 

Stunned they stood in silence for what felt like hours, processing what happened before Jeremy finally broke the silence. “What the Fuck was that! Holy shit a dragon just fucking like… robbed me?!”

“Oh my god, we almost fucking died because of redstone. That would have been a shitty reason to die haha holy fuck!” Michael started laughing.

“Wot kinda dragon was that?! Why did it just flipping take all your redstone that's mental!” squawked Gavin.

“It must have smelled the redstone, maybe it was collecting it for its hoard? Either way it was surprisingly civil for, ya know, a goddamn dragon,” said Ryan as he finally lowered his arms.

“So this is Jeremy's fault is what you're saying?” said Michael. “What I didn't do this!” yelled Jeremy, getting back up. “Yeah yeah sure… but it was totally Jeremy's fault.”

“Whatever fuck you,” muttered Jeremey, “Let's just head back, I don't know about you guys but I'm think I'm done with the nether for now.”

They all agreed and headed back towards the portal. Before going through Jeremy took one last look at the nether castle to see the cavern the dragon had gone through. As they made it back they came face to face with Geoff and Jack, standing in front of the nether portal. Michael was the first to say anything. “Well shit.”


	2. The dragons nest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Geoff and Jack are waiting for the lads and Geoff is mad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget I appreciate suggestions or comments of any kind. This is my first fic I want to get better!

“If I remember correctly you fuckers,” Geoff said pointing to Ryan, Michael and Gavin, “were supposed to be helping mine new materials.” He switches his hand to point to Jeremy. “And you were supposed to be helping Lindsay and Trevor with builds.”

“Yeah, but Geoffrey!” started Gavin before Michael interrupted, “He's not gonna care watch.” “Geoffrey we saw a dragon! And it robbed Jeremy!”

Geoff was quiet for a second. “Anyone hurt?” They shake their heads. “He telling the truth?” This time Jack asked. They nodded their heads. Geoff then crossed his arms. “Then I don't care, get back to work assholes,” he said, then stalked away.  
“Told you,” said Michael as they all started to the mines. “So you guys really saw a nether dragon? How big was it?” asked Jack.

“Eh, like 30 ft maybe?” said Ryan. “Honestly not as big as you'd think for a dragon,” he shrugged. “You seen a lot of dragons Ryan? What the fuck, how do you know that?” asked Jack. Ryan turned away for a second. ”I don't know that much, it's just you'd think a dragon from the nether would be gigantics… I mean gigantic,” he blushed realizing his mistake. “Nah gigantics, like giant semantics, you got it Ryan.” Jeremy chuckled. “Fuck, you guys aren’t gonna let this go?” Ryan said as his shoulders dragged down. “Ah Ryan, of course not,” Michael said patting him on the back.

Later that night, Jeremy laid awake in bed thinking of the nether dragon. He wondered why it had just calmly taken the redstone and left? It could have forcefully taken it from them, it obviously smelled it and instead it had just waited calmly while he took it out of the bag. This gave Jeremy an idea. This might be the first instance of a gentle dragon they've met. But maybe it could be useful? What if they could tame it somehow? Then he realised he could probably do it, the dragon already knew that he's the one with redstone, so he could possibly get close to it. Then Jeremy came up with an even better plan. He could tame the dragon himself! And use it to fuck with the others, but that's not the main point here. It would be helpful for his potions, as some of the more complicated ones required scales and such. So Jeremy got up and looked into one of his chests where he had stored some of the redstone they mined earlier that day. He put a stack of it in his bag, grabbed his sword, and headed out. As quietly as he could, he made his way to the nether portal and walked through.

As Jeremy headed to the nether castle he looked around, in case there was an enemy nearby, but it seemed to be mostly pigmen. He looked at the cavern above to see if he could find a way to the entrance. He climbed his way up the walls of the castle onto the chunk of land that connected to the ceiling. He looked through his bag to grab his pickaxe and made his way to the mouth of the cavern the dragon had flown to.

He took a deep breath and made his way deeper into the cave. It looped higher up and around until he found a giant section. There was a large pile of redstone dust with bits of glowstone and gems scattered throughout it. Jeremy was surprised with how much redstone the dragon had in its hoard, redstone wasn't usually found in the nether so it was a wonder how it got it all. As he was thinking of possible ways he could approach the dragon some of the redstone began to move. As it moved he saw the closed eye of the dragon he had seen earlier that day. It seemed to sense something was in its den and its eye opened. Jeremy stood frozen as he watched it's pupils contract to reveal it's pale hazel eyes.

The dragon moved its head out of the redstone pile and shook it, sending some redstone dust cascading down. It then looked at Jeremy and began growling, its wings moving out from beneath the dust to appear bigger. Jeremy quickly raised his hands and sunk to the floor, “It's alright, I'm not here to hurt ya.” He pulled his bag off his shoulders and opened it so the dragon to clearly see it's contents.

The dragon stopped its growl and lowered its wings at his actions, and tilted it's head at him. It lowered its head to Jeremy and sniffed him closely. It growled lowly and looked directly at the sword hanging off his belt. Jeremy quickly pulled it off and tossed it behind him to retrieve on his way out. The dragon instantly calmed and then moved back to its hoard and reburied itself without taking the redstone from Jeremy. Confused, Jeremy put his bag down and tried to follow where the dust moved to see what was happening, but it seemed to stop moving altogether. Just then a man with long hair and a bright red cloak walked out from behind a pile of redstone. “Uhhh hey, so this is probably weird?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for any comments or suggestions. I hope you guys enjoy it!


	3. Talking with Matt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy talks to the dragon man and they wonder what to do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the suggestions so far! I appreciate all the support and hope you guys send more. I might take some time to edit past chapters after I complete the series so if you think I should reword a part go ahead and tell me!

"...Yeah, I think weird is probably an understatement.” Jeremy said starring awestruck at this admittedly handsome man. His hair reached his shoulders and was dark brown with a red tint at the tips. He was covered in a red cloak that's edge was torn and burnt along the end, it reached to about his ankles. Wait? Was he? Jeremy realised then that the man was naked under the cloak. Jeremy's face instantly turned red and he instead tried to keep his focus on the other man's face.

The man responded about as uncomfortable as you'd expect. “Yeah, figures. But ya know, I figured this would make it easier to talk?” He looked sheepish, a small blush on his face and he kept shifting his feet.

Jeremy shuffles awkwardly, “yeah, that makes sense. Actually, can all dragons transform? Is this just a normal thing?!”

“Sorta? It's more like, a spell that you have to learn. I'm not even that good at it,” the man raised his arm out of the cloak to show Jeremy that his entire hand down to just below his elbow was covered in scales. “I can’t even change into anything other then this, like others can. And I've seen one guy who looked perfectly like a human, this is the best I can do.”

Jeremy walked closer to him to get a closer look, “huh that's kind of awesome, actually.”

“Thanks?” the dragon man responded putting his arm back down. “So, why are you bringing me redstone? Don't people usually avoid fire breathing dragons? I mean I'll still take it, but ya know.”

“Well I feel weird about it now!” Jeremy exclaimed. “I was going til try to… tame you? Is that offensive? This feels weird”

“Eh, I've met dragons that have lived with humans. So, not really? But did you want like a pet? cause I'm gonna have to pass on that.” The man seemed to tense at the idea of being a pet.

“Not really, I just figured it be cool to have a dragon that could help us kill monsters. And honestly, I mostly wanted help to mess with my crew back in the cove.” Jeremy shrugged in hopes of making the other less uncomfortable.

He just seemed more uncomfortable at the idea of seeing more people. “No, I think I'm good here. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure about talking to you.” The entire conversation seemed to set him on edge.

“Are you… scared of people?” Jeremy asked confused. “Then why did you get close to us?”

He shuffled his feet and looked like he didn't know how to answer. Like he didn't know how to phrase it in a way that would make sense to Jeremy. “Dragons need to collect things… and when I smelt your redstone, I couldn't stop myself.”

This didn't feel like the real answer, but Jeremy didn't think it was a good idea to say anything about it. Maybe if Jeremy could convince him to trust him he could understand more. “Well, your talking to me alright now. How about this, if I bring you redstone can you help me with some things?” 

He looked conflicted for a moment as Jeremy patiently waited for his answer. “Can you swear that you won't tell your friends about me?” he sheepishly asked.

“If it makes you feel better, I won't even tell them why I'm going to the nether. I'll just tell them I came to get nether wart or blaze rods.” Jeremy said putting his hands up.

He hesitated for a moment before finally, “Ok… but remember if your lying I will set you guys on fire.” It felt like an empty threat that he said more to make himself feel better.

Jeremy chuckled a bit, “well I'll be sure to remember that. Actually what's your name? I feel like calling you Dragon Guy will make it really obvious?”

The man seemed to calm down, even cracked a smile. “Axialmatt, or just Matt really. You?”

“Its Jeremy” he smiles back.

As he started leaving Matt called back, “wait! you're leaving your bag.”

“Nah I brought that for you” Jeremy called over his shoulder.

As Jeremy left he made sure to grab some nether wart in case any of the others asked why he went back to the nether. Going through the portal it was still night time so everyone was still asleep. Jeremy was actually tired himself so he went back to his house and went back to bed. As he laid there he wondered if maybe befriending a dragon was really a smart choice. One thing is for sure, he's going to need a lot more redstone.


	4. Next day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy needs a new bag and more redstone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I'm proud of how this is turning out, hope you guys are too. Also special thanks to CalmWaveOfChaos who is essentially my editor. :)

The next morning Jeremy woke up and thought of what he should do about Matt. For some reason decided he decided to trust Jeremy with his secret. Which made Jeremy realize how careful he had to be if he broke Matt's trust the dragon would no doubt either kill him or anyone else he told. Maybe if he talked to him about the others he could find some way to get Matt to tell them himself? Eh, he'll figure it out later, right now he should start collecting materials for the cove and redstone for Matt.

Jeremy finally got out of bed and got ready for the day. He grabbed his morning gear and reached for his bag before realizing he had given it to Matt. He sighed and realized he'll probably need to head to a nearby village to get it. Which of course means he needs emeralds for trading. But for now, he can just carry a couple things at a time in his quickbar pouch and go back and forth.

He grabs a diamond pickaxe and sword then heads out to the mines. Trevor is already down there getting a vein of iron when he sees Jeremy coming.”Hey Jeremy! Another day of mining?”

“Yeah, I uh lost my bag and I left all my redstone in it. Figure I should head to one of the villages and just trade a new one,” Jeremy responded.

“Coolio, can you grab me something from Geoff's mercantile? He won't just let me get an enchanted sword here I have to get to his little stand like some type of animal.” Trevor looked at Jeremy and crossed his arms.

“Awe, come on Trevor, he's proud of that thing. Just let him run his shop, it's better than when he was ‘simple farmer Geoff’ and just sat with chickens all day.” Jeremy chuckled heading down one of the mine shafts.

Most of Jeremy's day was spent going back and forth through the mines collecting redstone and emeralds. By the end of the day, he had filled most of his chest with redstone and gotten enough emeralds to trade with villagers for a bag. He also grabbed a couple diamonds to take with him to Geoff's shop. 

Later that day the crew ate together near the logo as they discussed the next let's play coming up in a couple of weeks. “So, I was thinking we do uh… like something along the lines of shopping list?” Trevor said as he finished his cooked lamb chop. 

“Oh yeah, what do you want to do though?” Jeremy asked.

“We could do food?” said Lindsey as she picked up her bread. “That way we also gather more food, and also we've been eating lamb and bread for a week now. I want some stakes.”

They continued this way for a few more hours until the stars began showing across the sky. They all began to get up one by one until Jeremy was left to himself. He took his leftover loaf of bread and went to his house to grab a few things. He grabbed his sword, pickaxe, and some redstone from his house, this time much less than what he took last night. He started his way reword the nether portal, careful to make sure no one saw him and poofed to the other side. 

As he stepped onto the warm netherrack he looked around for enemies, above the castle, he saw a ghast flying nearby. It was far enough that he wasn't too worried about it spotting him so he made his way to the castle. As he kept an eye on it he noticed what looked to be movement on the castle. He watched and realized it was actually Matt watching the ghast from the side of a spire. The ghast hasn't spotted him yet, seemingly oblivious to what was about to happen. Jeremy stopped and watched as Matt jumped into the air and flew quickly towards the ghast and grabbed it mid-air. He flapped his wings and held the now limp ghast in his mouth and flew to the entrance of his cave. He looked around and spotted Jeremy and dropped the ghast into his cave then flew over. He landed a few paces away and lowered his head to Jeremy. He nipped at his shirt a bit but kept it gentle to not hurt him in any way.

“Hey! Careful dude!” Jeremy said bopping him on the nose gently.

Matt rumbled than lifted his head then turned and walked a few steps in the direction of his cave. He looked back at Jeremy to make sure he was following as they made their way to the base of the castle. Matt looked at Jeremy and opens his wings and baited them. It took a moment before Jeremy realized that he was asking if he could fly him up.

“Uh, Nah I'm good. I'll just walk, it's fine.” Jeremy said shaking his head and looking away.

Matt tilted his head to him, but followed him up the slope he used the other night. He had to squeeze against the wall to keep from falling but they made the trek up to his cave. When they get closer to his hoard Matt speeds up and jumps into his redstone pile and searches for something. He grabs what appears to be his cloak then goes behind his one pile of dust and seemingly shrinks down. Than, human Matt walks out from behind it with his cloak wrapped around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be sure to leave any suggestions you have! I really appreciate it!


	5. trip plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Jeremy have a discussion on redstone and decide on a trip to a village.

“Hey Jeremy, uh what's up?” asked Matt, adjusting his cloak around his shoulders.

“Not much, I saw you grab a ghast though? Are ya gonna go get it?” Jeremy asked as he stepped closer and lowered himself onto a nearby rock and sat down.

“I'll just get it later, don't worry about it. But um, what do you want to talk about?” asked Matt as he sat on the ground.

“Is it cool if I asked about your magic? Cause us humans can only do magic with potions or like enchanted books. I kinda wanted to know how it works,” Jeremy said, looking at Matt with curiosity.

“You guys can't do magic? Huh, I didn't know that,” Matt said, tilting his head. “Well, what do you know? I'll answer what I can but I'm not really great at it, I'm more into building things.” 

“You build things? Like what, can you show me some stuff?” Jeremy asked with new interest.

“I mean yeah? I added a few of the rooms onto the castle under here, mostly learning how to use my redstone,” he blushed in response.

“What?! That's awesome, you know how to use redstone? None of us are really good at it, Geoff and Gavin know a little bit about it.” Jeremy said excitedly.

“I mean I've had plenty of time to learn, not much to really do in the nether,” Matt said, “I've got to think of something to do when I'm bored.”

“It's still cool that you can use it, we mostly end up getting frustrated with it,” Jeremy chuckled.

“I didn't say I didn't get frustrated by it, I said I know how to use it,” Matt said with a smile tugging at his lips.

“Heh, yeah I get it,” Jeremy said as a comfortable silence washed over them. 

They continued talking like this for a few hours. They spent most of the time talking about redstone, how to use it and how Matt usually ends up breaking the things he makes because he wants to put his redstone in his hoard again. Jeremy also gives Matt the redstone he brought him. 

“Hey, by the way, did you want your bag back? I don't think I can give it back, cause I might have tried to grab it with my claws and destroyed it a little.” Matt had said at some point in their conversation.

“Don't worry about it, I'm going to a nearby village to get another soon anyway,” Jeremy smiled.

“A what?”

“A village? Have you never seen one before?” Jeremy asked.

“I've never left the nether before, dude,” Matt responded.

“Oh yeah, huh… would you want to see what it looks like?” Jeremy asked with new found interest. “I could show you around sometime, dude you'd love it! It's not really anything like the nether, but we do have a lot of cool stuff there.”

“Uh, I don't know…” Matt said.

“Don't worry about my friends, we could just go to the village and that's it. And if you hate it we'll come right back here. I need to go anyway, I need to get a new bag and some extra supplies.”

“Well I'm more worried about hiding. I don't know if you noticed, but I don't have clothes under this, and my hands and legs are still covered in scales,” Matt said, looking at his hands peeking out from his cloak.

“Oh yeah hmm… we could grab some clothes when we're there? Come on it'll be great!” Jeremy said excitedly.

Matt looked at Jeremy and saw how excited he seemed at the idea of showing Matt the other world, and thought for a moment. “I am curious about what it looks like… ok, I guess.” 

“Yes, dude! You're gonna love it,” Jeremy said, getting up.

Matt stood too and they made plans on when they would go out. Jeremy said that there's a village not too far from the cove where they could get clothes from so Matt could walk around freely. They decided that Jeremy would come get Matt when the cove was empty enough and they would head to the village as quickly as possible. They had to be careful that no one saw Matt and they wouldn't be questioned. 

“So I'll come as soon as it's safe, but we'll have to be quick alright.” Jeremy was excited to show Matt the world, he figured this would help Matt feel more comfortable around people. It also would be a good chance to talk about magic, since they had gotten sidetracked when they were talking and Jeremy still wanted to ask him about it.

“Yeah! Honestly, I can't wait to see what it looks like,” Matt said with similar excitement to Jeremy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always appreciate suggestions! Also thanks for all the love, I am glad you guys like it so far!


	6. The sky is blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Matt have a close call with Alfredo and the portal breaks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to CalmWaveofChaos! They are doing so much to help!<3

Jeremy spent the next morning getting his things organized so that he didn't have to worry when he went to grab Matt. When he knew he was all set he went outside to see if anyone was around.

He saw that Michael and Gavin were headed out to the woods to go hunting. Ryan was doing... something in his house. Geoff, Lindsay, and Trevor were already gone to the next build, adding some touch ups. Alfredo was the only one still out; he was in the garden grabbing some wheat. 

“Hey, Alfredo! Whatcha doing?” Jeremy called, walking over to him.

“S’up Jeremy, ‘bout to make me some bread boy!” he said smiling.

“Nice dude, so any plans today?” Jeremy asked in the hopes of figuring out if he could get Matt back here with without having to worry about Alfredo spotting them.

“Eh, not really. I'm gonna head down Jack's mine in a bit though. I had an idea to set up some buttons down there, I'm gonna make a little secret room,” he said chuckling.

“Heh, one of these days he's going to snap at you dusk boys,” Jeremy laughs along with him.

“What about you? Did you need my help with something?” Alfredo tilts his head. 

“Nah, I was just about to head to the nether. I'm gonna grab some blaze rods then head to the village and do some trading,” Jeremy shrugged.

“Oh cool,” Alfredo finishes grabbing a small bundle of wheat. “Alrighty, I'll see ya later then.”

As Jeremy watched Alfredo head to Jack’s house he starts to make his way towards the portal. He doesn't go through until he sees Alfredo go down into Jack's basement, and even then he waits a second before actually going in.

When he poofs through the portal, he's pleasantly surprised by dragon Matt laying near the portal. He's laying down with his eyes half closed, not really looking at the portal when his ears flick toward Jeremy. He lifts his head to look at him, then gets up to move and grab his cloak he was apparently laying on. He moves behind a nearby mound so he's partly hidden, then begins to shrink down until Jeremy can no longer see him. When he walks back around he's in his human form and adjusting his cloak around his shoulders.

“Hey man! Were you waiting too long?” Jeremy asks him as he walks closer.

“Not really, it's cool,” Matt replies casually. “So, uh I've never been to the other side, what's it like? So I have an idea what I'm up for.”

“Well for one it's a lot… brighter? I guess that's the word I'm looking for,” Jeremy said as they began walking. “There's a lot less reds and oranges then there are here.”

They both stopped in front of the portal. “Here I'll go first and you just come in after me, cool?” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, ok,” Matt said, sheepishly looking at the portal.

“Don't worry, it's harmless,” Jeremy said as a smile spread on his face.

Before Matt could shoot back a reply, Jeremy stepped into the portal and poofed onto the other side. He made a quick glance towards Jack's house to see if Alfredo was still in the mines, then glanced up to Ryan's house to see if he was out, but both appeared empty. After a few seconds of waiting, Matt appears but as he does the portal explodes and shuts off. Matt falls forward, catching himself on Jeremy as they both look to the portal. Nothing appears destroyed around it, even Matt appears fine; the only real damage is that the portal turned off.

“What the fuck..?” Jeremy mumbled as he helps Matt to his feet. 

“I guess, cause I'm a dragon it… broke?” Matt said, tilting his head at the portal.

“Eh, it didn't really do much so I think it will be fine. Stay here, I'm going to go get a flint steel and turn it on,” Jeremy said, about to turn and race down to his house.

“Jeremy, I think you're forgetting something,” Matt deadpanned. Then he took a deep breath and breathed a small fire at the portal, effectively turning it back on.

“Oh yeah, look at that,” Jeremy whistled.

While Jeremy was looking at the portal to make sure there weren't any permanent marks, Matt was looking at the bright blue sky. “Alright, Matt you ready to-” he cut himself off as he sees the look on Matt's face. “Matt, come on… you haven't even seen the village yet.” Jeremy grabs Matt's elbow ushering him to follow, smiling at him as he does.

Matt's face has an odd look on it for a second as he looks back to Jeremy before it passes. “Sorry… just never seen the sky before.”

They rush until they're out far enough from the cove to not be immediately spotted, then stop for a moment to catch their breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget any suggestions or comments I love and appreciate all of them!


	7. New clothes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Jeremy are on their way to the village and talk about obvious things that aren't obvious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thanks to CalmWaveofChaos!

Matt and Jeremy are standing in a forest by the cove, catching their breath. Jeremy is leaning against a tree, breathing heavily as he watches Matt look around while he also breathes heavily. “So, now that we've stopped. How do you like it so far?” Jeremy asks as Matt stares at the ground where a daisy is blooming.

“There are a lot more colors here; I've never seen some of them. Like I know about reds and oranges and stuff from the nether but I don't know what this is." Matt points to the grass, kneeling down to look closer at it.

“Oh that's grass, it's green.” 

“I never really thought about how different the two worlds could be,” Matt said looking a little lost in thought. He stands back up and takes a closer look at Jeremy. “Now that I'm looking at you, I just realized how… bright? I guess, you look less reddish or orangish then in the nether.”

“Thanks I guess?” Jeremy responded, looking at himself. “How about we talk more when we get you some clothes?”

“Yeah, sound like a plan” Matt said as they began walking.

“So when we get closer to the village, I think what we'll do is I'll go buy something for you to wear while you wait. Then you can change and I'll show you around, sound good?” 

“Yeah, that works.”

As they're walking Matt continues asking Jeremy to tell him about certain things. He asks about colors he's never seen in the nether as well as animals that don't exist there. Jeremy patiently explains each one as best he can, telling him about birds that come in all different colors and during the different seasons the plants change. Matt and Jeremy were so enraptured with their conversation that when they reached the edge of the forest they almost didn't notice.

“Oh, uh there's the village,” Jeremy said pointing to the beginning of a street leading into the village. “Stay here I'll be quick as I can, stay out of sight.” He begins running to the first building as Matt watches until he is out of sight.

Matt turns and looks at the tree and wonders what they must look like in different seasons. Jeremy explains that they were orange and yellow but brighter than the nether, so he has no real idea. “Maybe I'll come here more often,” He said patting the trunk of a tree. He waits for about ten minutes before he sees Jeremy rushing back to his hiding spot in the trees.

“Hey! So, I got you clothes and a pair of gloves and boots to hide your scales.” Jeremy said holding up a small stack of clothes up to Matt. He had gotten a pair of dark red-brown pants, a red long-sleeved shirt, a pair of black boots and gloves that matched.

“Hey thanks dude,” Matt responded as he grabbed the outfit. “Uh gimme a second.”

As Matt changed into his new clothes Jeremy turned so he could keep watch for any passers. “No problem dude, uh so I was thinking we walk through the marketplace a little then there's a restaurant nearby where we can sit outside. Not a lot of people usually sit outside so I think we can talk without anyone bothering us, or wonder why you're asking why the sky's blue.” 

“Hey! That is a very reasonable question for someone who's never seen the sky!” Matt yelled back as he finished putting on the gloves.

“You know how to build a revolving dispenser but don't know anything about basic colors?!” Jeremy said laughing back. They began walking to the village as they continued joking around.

“It's not like blue occurs in the nether Jeremy! What do you expect?” Matt said blushing and looking at Jeremy with a smirk he tried to contain.

“I don't know, it's just funny! You know all this cool advanced stuff, but if I asked you to tell me the color of the grass you couldn't figure it out.” Jeremy threw up his arms as if to mock Matt's confusion. While talking they had just entered the beginning of the village, passing a few open stores.

“Fuck you, you try growing up in the nether and never seeing any of this shit. It's confusing, like what the fuck is that? I've never seen this before in my life,” Matt said, pointing to a dog near someone's store. It looked at Matt and tilted it's head.

“That's a dog, see that is just funny to me. I know you have no reason to know all this stuff, but it doesn't make it any less funny,” Jeremy said chuckling.

“I guess,” Matt grumbled to him.

“Awe come on Matt, you'll learn," Jeremy patted his back as they walked down the street.

“Yeah, I mean it's kinda like how you guys don't know magic like we do. I mean you guys don't know how to change to weather or anything," Matt conceded.

“Wait, what? You can change the weather? What do you mean? How?” Jeremy stopped and looked bewildered at Matt.

“Not like, for a long time, but we can cause lightning strikes or tornados. In the nether it's a lot harder cause, cause ya know, no sky. But we can create lightning," Matt shrugged, looking back at Jeremy. 

Jeremy finally started walking again. “But how? Can you guys make a rainstorm?” he asked curious.

“...what's a rainstorm?” This time Matt stopped confused.

Jeremy is quiet for a second before he burst out laughing, “We've straight up come full circle, haven't we.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the support, don't forget I'm always looking for any suggestions!


	8. Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Jeremy talk at a restaurant and Matt tries water for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to CalmWaveofChaos! Also, sorry about the lack of updates, I should have some more time to get back to writing.

Matt and Jeremy had stopped at a restaurant and were sitting at a table outside talking. They had continued their conversation but had drifted to talking about water. It wasn't naturally occurring in the nether and Matt had only caught a brief glimpse of the ocean before they had taken off.

“What do you drink then? Do you drink lava?” Jeremy asked as they waited for the waitress.

“Well yeah, lava for me is like water for you. What were you expecting?” Matt said smirking.

“That's fucking cool, so you can swim in it?” 

As Matt was about to respond the waitress came by to ask for their order. When Matt saw her he instantly shut his mouth with a click. He lowered his head and tried to make himself smaller. 

Jeremy quickly noticed and took over for him. “Yeah, can we get two lamb chops a water and a diet coke please?” he said quickly.

“Ok dear, I'll be right back with your drinks!” she said, and walked off.

They quietly watched her go inside before Jeremy turned to Matt. “You good?” 

“Yeah I'm fine, guess I'm still not used to people,” Matt responded quietly. He kept his head down and picked at his gloves.

Jeremy looked at him and grabbed his hand, causing him to look up and see Jeremy smile. “You're fine, don't worry about it.” Jeremy squeezed his hand.

They were quiet for a few minutes, just smiling and holding hands. When the waitress came back with their drinks they quickly let go of each other. 

After she left Jeremy took the cup of water and held it out to Matt. “So I got you a cup of water so that you could check it out.” 

“Awe thanks man,” Matt said, taking the cup from him. He looked at it before taking a tentative sip. As soon as the water touched his lips, however, he let out a yelp of pain and threw the cup at Jeremy, splashing water on him. Jeremy grabbed it as Matt almost dropped the cup to cover his mouth with both his hands. “Mother Fucker! Ow!”

“Oh shit! You ok?!” Jeremy asked, putting the cup down. Matt took a second before actually responding. 

“Fuck, is it supposed to hurt?” Matt said, finally letting his hands down.

“No! I didn't think it would hurt you!” Jeremy said quickly, waving his arms. 

“Fuck that really hurt.” Matt touched his lips and looked at his hand to see if it had bled. “I guess I can't touch water? Ya know in hindsight, given that I'm a dragon from the nether that makes too much sense,” he chuckled.

“Still I feel bad, uh, here, maybe you can have my drink, it's not really water so I think you'll be fine right?” Jeremy said, handing him his diet coke.

“Lemme see.” He took the cup from Jeremy and looked at it before he looked around. After making sure the coast was clear he took off a glove and slowly dipped his finger in. They both held their breath for a second. When nothing happened he took his finger out. “Huh, I guess this won't kill me.”

“Good, I wasn't gonna drink it after you stuck your hand in it,” Jeremy said laughing.

“Hey! I don't want to burn my face again alright!” Matt yelled at Jeremy hitting his arm. They laughed at each other and drifted back to the conversation. 

A few buildings down the road from them was a store. It was old and rickety; the shop was half-heartedly put together. The sign was crooked, and in messy writing it said ‘Geoff's mercantile.’

Geoff came to the front of his store and was speaking to a customer about a pickaxe when he glanced outside for a second. When he thought he saw Jeremy he looked again. He saw him sitting across from someone. The other person was facing away from him, so he could only tell that they were dressed in red and had shoulder length brown hair with red tips. They were talking about something, waving their hands in the air. Jeremy was watching the other intently with his head leaning on his hand while smiling softly at them. Geoff watched them for a second before turning back to his customer with a small smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for the support and kudos! I always appreciate suggestions!


	9. The library

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Matt go to the library and lose track of the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thanks to CalmWaveofChaos!

After Jeremy and Matt finished eating they headed to a library. Matt had asked if there were different uses of Redstone and Jeremy didn't know enough to help. He figured this would help streamline some questions. He also wanted to see if there was a book on dragons that was accurate enough to help him get information on the kind of dragon Matt was.

As they stepped into the library they saw that it was relatively empty. A few people were scattered through the aisles, not really paying attention to them. Jeremy directed them to an empty corner in the back, out of sight. “I’ll grab some books real quick, sit here?” he asked, gesturing to the cushions propped up by the wall.

“Yeah sure,” Matt said, sitting down.

Jeremy smiled and turned down an aisle, looking for a book about building. A few aisles down he grabbed two books on architecture and redstone, then found a book on nether dragons. He headed back to Matt with the books in hand and sat against the cushions close to Matt. 

“Here, I got a couple books on redstone and one on architecture I thought you'd like,” he said, handing three books in Matt's direction. 

“Oh! Thanks, dude,” Matt said, smiling brightly at him, quickly opening up one of the books and beginning to read.

Jeremy returned the smile, despite the fact that Matt wasn't looking, before turning to his own book. They sat like that for a few hours, quietly reading their books in the corner of the library. 

A couple of hours later Jeremy had finished a chapter on dragon growth and looked up for a break. He looked at Matt, still engrossed in his book on architecture, and noticed that at some point he had curled up against Jeremy. Jeremy quickly looked away, hiding a blush, at a window a bit away from their spot. It was later in the day, and the sun was beginning to set. “Oh fuck!” Jeremy exclaimed as he folded a corner of the page he was on.

“What? What happened?” Matt said, watching Jeremy gather all the books and stand up.

“It's getting late! And I forgot I still need a new bag,” he said, holding out a hand to help Matt up.

They took their books to the front where Jeremy checked them out. He quickly led them farther down the road, closer to where they had entered the town, to a shop where he could get a bag. While Jeremy grabbed a bag he looked behind him to where Matt was, only to find him missing. He looked around quickly before going down a nearby aisle, seeing Matt looking at a wall of masks. Matt was holding a wooden badger mask, looking at it confused. Jeremy walked next to him and asked, “You like the badger mask? I prefer the zombie one myself.” He reached up and pulled down the zombie mask, holding it in front of his face and looking at Matt who laughed at him.

“I was just curious about these, one of them looks like the pigmen and I was confused for a sec.” Matt looked back at the mask then back at Jeremy. “Can I get this? I want it.”

“The mask? Why?” Jeremy asked, putting the zombie mask back on the wall.

“I dunno, just kinda want it?” Matt said looking at the wooden mask in his hand; his eyes had a sort of gleam to them. Jeremy looked at him for a second before taking the mask from Matt's hand. Matt looked up quickly, and for a second Jeremy swore he saw murder in Matt's eyes before he shook his head.

“Yeah I'll get it for you, let's go pay and I'll give this back, k?” Jeremy said, turning them to the counter.

“Uh, yeah sure… sorry," Matt said, looking away from him sheepishly.

Jeremy led Matt to the counter and traded a couple of his diamonds for the bag and Matt's mask. He handed Matt the mask back as they headed out of town and into the forest they had come in through. Matt quickly took the mask and held it close to himself. Jeremy watched and figured that it probably was rude to say anything. “That for your hoard?” Too bad he was really curious.

“What? Oh uh, yeah. I just really wanted it…” Matt responded shyly.

“That's cool, I was just curious.” Jeremy looked at Matt and saw his blushing face. Jeremy watched Matt tense awkwardly before deciding to help. “What would happen if you decided to tour around collecting countries?”

“...what?” Matt was shocked from his tense state and looked back at him.

“It's the hoard de France.” Jeremy smiled smugly at Matt, waiting for him to process what he just said.

“What the fuck?!” Matt burst out laughing at the dumb joke, “That's not even that funny?”

“Sorry, I didn't want the silence to dragon.”

“Oh My God, how long have you been holding that in?” Matt asked, trying not to fall into a giggling fit.

“The night after we talked the first time, I was like ‘what's a good dragon pun.' I have a bunch more!” Jeremy said, giggling.

“No! You're lucky I'm on a human-free diet,” Matt said, still smiling.

As they talked they left the village and made their trek into the woods, in the direction of the cove.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget any suggestions or comments I love and appreciate all of them!


	10. Back to the cove

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Jeremey are on their way to the cove.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to CalmWaveofChaos!

Jeremy led Matt back down the path they had taken earlier. While they were walking they he talked about the crew. “Yeah, it was during our fishing game, Gavin found it! So I had to hit the self-destruct button!”

Matt started laughing, “Well why was it hidden?!”

“Cause I hadn't moved there yet, I figure they'd find it or something and it'd be funny! But they never went under the lake!” Jeremy joked, “I almost forgot about it.” 

“Oh my god, do you have more of those? Are there any in the cove?” Matt asked excitedly.

“I haven't made any yet. We barely just moved here, I wanna finish my house first," Jeremy said, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

Matt nodded back and was about to respond before they realized that they were close to the cove now. They were standing on the edge of the forest next to Michael's house. The jagged mountain was towering over them and the beginning of the cove was close by. Jeremy looked at Matt. “I'm gonna make sure the coast is clear, I'll be right back.” Matt nodded and Jeremy made his way to the cove.

He walked past Michael's house and around to the end of the beach. He looked around but didn't see Lindsay or Michael. Looking to the cove though he saw most everyone was back. Lindsay and Trevor were talking next to the nether portal and Michael, Geoff, and Gavin were putting out Gavin's house that had caught fire again, but Ryan, Alfredo and Jack weren't anywhere in sight. Quickly making his way back to Matt, he made sure to keep out of sight. 

“Alright so, we have a problem,” Jeremy said running up to Matt.

“What do you mean?” Matt asked, tensing up.

“So pretty much everyone is back and near the portal.” Jeremy rubbed the back of his head nervously.

“Fuck, what do we do?” Matt looked back to the cove.

“I don't know, we'd have to find a way to hide you somehow.” Jeremy looked for some way to at least get to his house so that he could hide Matt until everyone went to sleep. 

“...Maybe I could transform into something else?” Matt sounded unsure.

“I thought you didn't know how?” Jeremy asked.

“Well I don't, but I mean… it's probably the same as turning human right? Just like a different thing?” Matt sounded as unsure as Jeremy felt about the whole situation.

“Is that dangerous? You're not gonna hurt yourself doing that right?” Jeremy asked.

“No… probably not? I think it'll be fine," Matt said as he started to take off his gloves. “Here, hold my clothes, I don't want to destroy them accidentally.”

Jeremy turned away from him, a small blush dusting his cheeks. Occasionally Matt would hand over his clothes over his shoulder. “You sure you're going to be okay?”

“Uh Yeah? I'll be fine, what should I try to turn into?” Matt asked, handing over his cloak.

“Uh, probably something small right? Do you know what a cat is? That would probably be good,” Jeremy said, putting Matt's clothes in his bag.

“Yeah, I think? That's the little four-legged, not-dog right?” Matt asked.

This causes Jeremy to let out a little laugh, “Yeah that's it!” remembering how on their way back Matt had seen an ocelot and asked what it was.

“Alright, let's hope for the best then,” Matt said as he went quiet for a few moments. 

“Matt? You got it?” Jeremy asked before turning slowly, in case he was still standing in his human form. 

When he turned though Matt was nowhere in sight. “Meow.” Until he looked down, that is. There, where Matt was standing a few seconds ago, was a red long-haired cat. He had tufts on his ears that curved upward, and freakishly long black claws.

“Whoa, that's even better than your human,” Jeremy chuckled, making Matt give him the best unimpressed look a cat could. “Alright, so you can stay at my house until we can get to the nether portal. Hop into my bag, if Lindsay sees you she'll want to keep you," he said, bending down and opening the top of his bag. 

Matt hopped in and layed down on his clothes, looking up at Jeremy. Jeremy grinned down at him and tied up the bag, being careful not to close it too tightly. He slowly moved the bag back over his shoulders, trying not to jostle Matt too much, then made his way around the hills to the cove.

“Alright, here we go,” Jeremy mumbled, mostly to himself. Then he made his way over to the cove, bracing himself for seeing the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I picture Matt turning into a red Maine coon cat, probably bigger though. As always I love any suggestions you guys have!


	11. Someone set the house on fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Matt finally made it to the cove, now to talk to the others.

Jeremy walked around Michael's house to the bridge connecting it to the mainland. He kept his face neutral as he walked up to the others. “Hey, I'm back!” he called.

“Jeremy! Michael set my house on fire!” Gavin yelled back, putting out the last of the flames. Most of his house was in shambles, but at least it was standing. 

“No I didn't idiot, Geoff did!” Michael said, standing next to him by the door, “I helped put it out!”

“I was putting it out! I'm not getting the blame for something I didn't do!” Geoff yelled from his place on top of the house.

“You started setting the house on fire,” Michael pointed out.

“Yeah but then I put it out!” Geoff screamed, almost losing his footing on the roof.

“Fire spreads!”

“Not across the fucking map!”

Ryan showed up behind Jeremy with a bucket of water. “They've been doing this for like an hour now, I'm still confused as to who set the house on fire.” Ryan put down his water bucket. 

Jeremy laughed. “I bet it was Michael.”

“Personally, I think it was Gavin on accident and he forgot about it,” Ryan shrugged 

“Well let me know if they ever figure it out, imma go put my stuff away,” Jeremy said, turning to his house down by the beach.

“Alright, when you head back up can you bring some wood; we’re gonna have to fix his house before he starts burning ours down,” Ryan sighed. 

Jeremy laughed and headed down to his house. He walked down to his half-finished dock and up his stairs. It was mostly a box with several chests and a bed right now, as they were still building their houses, although he was glad that he didn't have time to put up his windows so he could hide Matt. He went inside and lit a couple of torches, giving the room a faint glow. Afterward he carefully put his bag down on his bed and opened it. Matt’s head popped out. He climbed out of the bag onto his bed and shook himself out, looking extremely frazzled. “You alright Matt?” Jeremy asked, laughing a little. 

Matt looked at him, shaking and sending fur in every direction, then looked back at him disgruntled. Jeremy let out another laugh, “Sorry, sorry. I'll be back, I'm gonna go help them fix Gavin’s house. I'll be back as soon as I can ok?” Jeremy said, while going to a corner in his room to a chest where he kept most of the wood he collected.

“You should be fine in here, I don't think anyone but me is gonna bother you.” Jeremy took out some of his wood and went back to the door before looking at Matt one more time. “I'll be right back.”

Jeremy headed back up the beach and saw Geoff and Ryan were on top of the remaining parts of the house fixing holes, while Michael and Lindsay fixed up the holes in the bottom. Trevor and Gavin were in Jack's house, for some reason. “What are you guys doing?” he called through the open door.

“Looking for Geoff's house,” Trevor said.

“Oh, this is Jack's house?” Gavin looked around confused.

“What the Fuck are you doing?” Jeremy laughed.

“I'm gonna burn his house down,” Gavin said nonchalantly.

“I'm fixing your house dickhead!” Geoff yelled from atop Gavin half-built house.

“Sorry Geoff!” Gavin yelled, making his way over to his house. 

Trevor walked to Jeremy as they headed to the house with the others. “Hey, by the way, did you get my sword?” he asked.

“Oh, uh no sorry I forgot…” Jeremy said scratching at the back of his head. The truth was, he was so distracted by Matt that he didn't even think about it. He just hoped that none of the others realized why he was distracted.

“Yeah he was too distracted with his girlfriend,” Geoff yelled down at them.

“Oooh, little Jeremy has a girlfriend?” Gavin said from his busted window.

“Geoff, what are you talking about?” Jeremy said doing his best not to blush.

“I saw you on a little date, I just happened to be at my world famous mercantile and I didn't want to interrupt." Geoff leaned down to look at them, tugging at his beard.

This only caused all of the others to start their barrage of questions. Gavin was begging to know the details. Lindsay was asking progressively more embarrassing questions while Michael egged her on. Ryan tried to get the others to leave him alone about it, but they pretty much ignored him. Trevor was asking him if he was gonna bring them home. The entire time Jeremy covered his face with his hands groaning in frustration. “It wasn't a date, I just ran into my old friend. And he was stopping through town when we ran into each other. I just had lunch with him Geoff.”

“Oh, so it's an ex-boyfriend?” Geoff called back smugly.

Jeremy let out a loud groan from behind his hands, quickly realizing that this was going to go on for most of the night.


	12. We need cactus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew talks about Jeremy's boyfriend and finding cactus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I think it's safe to say, I don't have a concrete timeframe when most of this happening. It wouldn't make any sense to follow the episodes as they come out because Matt was in a lot of them, so I'm kinda just using the events as building blocks for the environment and references.

The crew spent the rest of the day rebuilding Gavin's house. By the time it was close to how it originally looked the sun was beginning to set. Most of them were exhausted, and honestly tired of Gavin's shit, and decided to call it a day. By the time they had settled for dinner at the logo, Alfredo had come up from the mines; he didn't even look surprised at Gavin half-destroyed house. He carried a giant bag full of supplies for finishing his house. Jack came up shortly after, carrying his own bag of supplies. He looked at Gavin’s house and just laughed. They all sat on the half finished logo and ate their pork chops. “So, do I want to know what happened to Gavin's house?” Jack chuckled.

“Oh, I set it on fire,” Michael said as he continued eating his pork chop.

There was a pause, then suddenly everyone began shouting. “Michael you prick! Why!” Gavin screeched.

“I fucking told you it wasn't me, I told you!” Geoff pointed to Ryan, who raised his arms in defense.

“To be fair, you thought it was Trevor," Ryan responded.

“Ah man, plot twist,” Alfredo said laughing.

“See Geoff, I told you!” Trevor exclaimed over everyone.

“Wow, who would have thought,” Jeremy said sarcastically. 

“Yeah, Michael would never do anything like that,” Lindsay giggled.

“I mean fire, he would never even think about it,” Jeremy laughed, “especially to Gavin.” 

Finally, as the laughing died down, they decided to talk about what supplies they're gonna need to finish their houses, builds, and other things they'll make.

“So I'm basically all done with the black of the logo, all I need is to go find a desert and get some cactus,” Jeremy said.

“Good luck with that, I don't think there's a desert anywhere close by,” Ryan said, “I've been trying to find one near us but so far nothing.”

“Augh, so it's gonna be a hell of a walk then," Jeremy groans, putting his head in his hands. At this point, he finished his food and put his plate off to the side.

“It's all good Jeremy, you just gotta take a little trip,” Alfredo tried to reassure him.

“Here's what you do Jeremy, you get some rope and a saddle and a horse and there ya go,” Trevor said helpfully.

“Yeah, thanks, that helps. No one wants to help me find a desert?” Jeremy asked, looking at the others.

They all made quick excuses as to why they couldn't do it. “I gotta fix my house Jeremy,” Gavin said.

“I gotta build a new house cause Gavin ate mine,” Trevor said.

“I need to build a roof before it snows, sorry,” Alfredo said.

“Every time I leave my house the dusk boys break something, so I'm gonna stay here,” Jack said.

“I gotta redo our house cause Michael doesn't like our blockhouse,” Lindsay said.

“I'm gonna make sure Lindsay doesn't fuck up our house,” Michael said.

“I don't want to,” Geoff deadpanned.

“I'll help after I finish my house." At least Ryan had his back.

“Thanks, I guess," Jeremy sighed, “Well I guess I'm gonna have to plan for a trip.”

“Ah it's all good Jeremy, just bring your boyfriend with you.” Geoff smiled at him.

“Oh my god, Geoff he's not my boyfriend.” Jeremy's head fell back into his hands. 

“Awe come on Jeremy, you can have a romantic trip," Alfredo smiled at him.

"Whatever assholes, I need to get ready if I'm gonna do this shit.” Jeremy got up, stretching his legs. “I'll see you guys tomorrow morning.” With that Jeremy headed down the beach to his house. He hoped the others didn't notice that he took an extra pork chop with him.

When he walked in he found Matt, in his human form, sitting on his bed and reading his book from earlier that he must have dug out. He wasn’t wearing his boots or his gloves, showing off their scales, while he also wore his mask on top of his head so he didn't obscure his face. When Jeremy walked in he looked up quickly and calmed down once he saw it was him. “Oh hey, how'd it go?” Matt asked nervously, flicking the corner of his page with his claws.

“Fine, oh and don't freak out,” Jeremy started. 

Matt immediately tensed and interrupted saying, “Never a good way to start.”

“It's not that bad! Geoff just said he saw you and me at the restaurant,” Jeremy quickly tried to reassure him, “He just thought we were on a date. None of them realized anything was up or that you're here.”  
Saying this slowly calmed Matt down. “So it's nothing bad?”

“No, they'll probably tease me about having a boyfriend for a while but that's it." Jeremy walked over and sat next to Matt who had put down his book.

“Alright,” Matt let out a sigh, before suddenly punching Jeremy softly on his arm. “You dick! You scared the shit out of me!”

“Ow, sorry, I didn't want you to freak out!” Jeremy defended himself, putting his arms up in surrender. “Anyway, if you're done hitting me, I think if we wait for a few others we can head back into the nether.”

“Oh yeah, that's good. I'm going to try to finish this then." Matt picked up his book and flipped back to his page.

“... You didn't mark your page?” Jeremy asked.

“...What?” Matt asked confused.

“How'd you know what page you're on if you didn't like, fold the page or something?”

“...I just look at what number the page was?”

“But wouldn't it be easier to mark it?"

“Probably, but it would also ruin the page.”

“No, it wouldn't! It would just leave a dent, who cares!” 

“Me, I can find my page without bending it so why would I?”

“I don't know!”

“Exactly!” Matt shot back. “Why does it even matter?”

“I don't know, I just started thinking about it.” Jeremy shot up his arms, effectively looking done with their argument.

They were both quiet for a second before they burst into laughter, bumping their heads together as they leaned into each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to CalmWaveofChaos, best editor I could ask for! Don't forget I love and appreciate any suggestions I get. Also, I'm sorry this chapter took so long but I was struggling with the dialog.
> 
> Also I might not be able to upload next week as I'm going to rtx!


	13. The Tour part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Matt take a tour around the cove.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I went to RTX and met Jeremy and Matt! They were so nice and they liked my art!!! Also sorry I was gone so long but I'm back now!

As Matt finished his book Jeremy leaned against him, drifting in and out of sleep. He was doing his best to stay awake so that they could sneak off to the portal together. Finally, as Matt finished his book he looked over at Jeremy and saw him barely awake, leaning his head on Matt's shoulder. Smiling softly, he nudged him gently to wake him. “Jeremy? Come on, dude.”

Jeremy slowly opened his eyes and yawned. Looking over at Matt he quickly realizes his proximity and moves from his side slowly. He stands up and stretches his arms over his head. “You done?” he asked.

“Yeah I'm good,” Matt said, getting up as well. He closed his book and set it down on Jeremy's bed.

“I'll go see if anyone's outside,” Jeremy said, heading toward the door. “I'll come and get you as soon as I know it's safe.” Jeremy smiled at Matt, who smiled and nodded back. He walked outside, closing the door behind him. He walked up the beach to get a look at the rest of the cove. Seeing it empty, he sighed and made his way back down to his house. He opens his door and sees Matt awkwardly standing there waiting for Jeremy to come back. “Hey, we're good! You ready to go?” Jeremy asked.

“Yeah dude, let's go,” Matt said, grabbing his boots and putting them on as they head towards the door. 

Jeremy leads Matt across his little bridge to the connecting beach. As he does Matt begins to fall slowly behind him and when Jeremy looks back he watches Matt scan the cove. Jeremy slows so that he and Matt are standing side by side on the sand of the beach. The water was still reflecting the night sky as he and Matt looked on. After a few minutes of them standing in silence, Matt finally spoke. “I didn't really get a chance to look at everything when we were running out of here.” He looks back at Jeremy with a small smile.

Jeremy smiled back. “Yeah? How about I show you around real quick? I mean we'll have to be quiet but everyone's asleep?” he asked. 

Matt was still for a second before excitedly nodding his head. “Alright! Sounds like a plan.” 

Jeremy walked him past Jack's house first, being extra careful to make sure Jack was asleep so he didn't see them from the curtainless windows. “This is Jack's house, he said he was going for a modern house but it's kinda just a box,” he explains quietly to Matt, who muffled his laugh in his hand. Leading him over to the cliff side on the side of the cove, he points to a winding staircase going up the mountain. “This leads to Geoff's house, it's just a hole in the cliff,” Jeremy explained. Matt looked around the cliff, noticing a hollowed out hole in the wall with a few torches scattered around it.

“Is that his house? He didn't even put a door or anything to keep out monsters?!” Matt whisper yelled, flailing his arms towards the house.

Jeremy immediately started giggling, bringing his hands up to muffle it. “Matt be quiet! You'll wake everyone up!” he whispered back.

“I'm just saying it's dangerous, what if he wakes up in the morning and just walks off the cliff?” Matt said exasperatedly as Jeremy pulled them away.

“Eh he'll be fine,” Jeremy said, laughing quietly. He pulls at Matt's arm, leading them along the cliffside to Gavin's house, careful to not to get too close to the broken windows. “Alright, so this monstrosity is Gavin's house. Michael burned it down so he's sleeping in Trevor’s,” Jeremy said, looking at some of the hasty repairs from earlier that night. Most of the windows were still broken up, but they managed to clean up the wood pretty well.

“Why is it built all, broken? It looks hideous.” Matt looked through the broken windows to see a mess of a building inside with no real shape to it. Along with the mess of wood inside was a pool of water that just fell into the middle of the building. “Does he just have a waterfall in his house? This is a mess,” Matt looked exasperated. 

“Yeah pretty much, I don't really know what he was going for.” Jeremy laughed, watching as Matt rubbed his face in his hands and let out an annoyed groan. “If it helps we all hate it,” Jeremy patted Matt's back, leaving his hand resting on Matt's shoulder.

Matt sighs, “Yeah that helps a little,” and smiled back at Jeremy. 

“Come on I'll show you the rest,” Jeremy said, pulling his hand away and walking toward Trevor's house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thanks to CalmWaveofChaos! Thanks for your patience and any comments and suggestions!


	14. The Tour Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Matt finish their tour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to CalmWaveofChaos, best editor I could ask for! Don't forget I love and appreciate any suggestions I get.

“Alright, so this was Trevor's house; originally he was gonna hollow out a small part of the mountain to make into his house," Jeremy explained as they looked at the remains of Trevor's first house.

"Whoa! So it would like blend into the environment? That's actually kind of what dragons do. What happened to it?" Matt asked as he looked through a window that was left on the side of the house.

“As we were building, Gavin sorta ate it? He filled it in so Trevor had to make a new house,” Jeremy explained, showing the remains of a hollowed out mound filled with cobblestone rocks.

“He just stole his house?” Matt gave Jeremy an exasperated look.

“Yeah, it started a lot of arguments and kinda fucked all of us over cause our beds were in there.” Jeremy looked through the remains of an old window from Trevor’s original house. "We had to spend like, a day digging them out.” 

Matt's jaw dropped at hearing this, looking exhausted at just the idea of all that. “Alright look, I've never met Gavin personally, he could be a really great guy, but what the fuck?!”

Jeremy quickly covered his mouth and attempted to muffle his laughter so as to not wake up anyone in the cove. “Yeah, I mean he's kind of a prick, but it's whatever. And you have met him, sorta, you were a dragon for that bit though,” Jeremy said, referring to first meeting Matt.

“Oh yeah, which one was he?” Matt asked, thinking about the other three that were with Jeremy. “I was more focused on the redstone at the time, so the others were kind of… like background to me. Is that rude?”

Jeremy lets out a small laugh at that. “Nah, it's cool. He was wearing a lot of green if that helps.” They start walking towards Trevor's newer house, careful not to go by the windows.

“Oh yeah, who was that sword guy and the-” Matt starts before he sees a plain building before them, “Wait, hold that thought; is this just a plain old box building?”

“Oh, yeah, this is Trevor’s new house." Jeremy looked at the building before them. The building was a bit small and was pretty much built into a little hill on the side of the cove, not too far from his original house. A little less creative than his original building, but it made do. The inside was more interesting though, it was a shame he couldn't show Matt.

“What happened to the creative thing though? His first house sounded like a cool idea, and now it's just this?” Matt indicated the building.

“Well the inside is much cooler, but he said he wanted to keep Gavin from cannibalizing this one,” Jeremy said, lowering his voice in the hopes that Matt would catch on.

“Oh, uh, sorry,” Matt said, lowering his voice. “I uh, just got excited?” 

Jeremy watched as Matt shrunk into himself for a second before quickly patting his arm and letting his hand linger for a bit. ”It’s fine, we just gotta be quiet.” He lead him to the edge of the farm so that they were next to the nether portal. "There are more houses we could look at, but I don't think you want to scale a mountain to see them. Besides, Alfredo still hasn't finished his, and I don't know where Ryan's is or how to get in it.”

“Maybe next time then?” Matt asked, with little hesitation still in his voice.

Jeremy decides to chance it, “Yeah and maybe I could introduce you to the others?” He waits hopefully for Matt's answer, his hand still gently resting on Matt's upper arm in what he hopes is a comforting manner.

Matt's hesitant before saying, “Yeah, maybe not everyone at once though?” 

Jeremy's eyes gleamed with excitement. “Yeah! Of course man, I'll introduce you to, uh, I don't know, I'll figure it out later. But uh, how about tomorrow we can talk about it and then I could talk to the others?”

Jeremy rambled on about what they could do tomorrow and who he could meet before Matt raised his arms and held Jeremy's shoulders. “That sounds great, but tomorrow? I'm tired,” Matt deadpanned as Jeremy relaxed under his hold.

Jeremy let out a huff of laughter. “Yeah, I'll talk to you tomorrow night?” Matt nodded with a soft smile on his face before going through the nether portal. Jeremy punched the air with a whispered “Yes!” before walking back down to his house.

Above the cove and hidden behind a waterfall was an opening that led to a well-furnished hideout. The front looked similar to a skull, with glass windows for eyes and a doorway for the mouth. On the floor of the room was a window to show part of the cove below it.

Not too far from the new “Edgar hole” was Ryan. He stood in his sleepwear with a diet coke in hand, looking down. “Huh," he took a sip, “a new dragon, this'll be interesting.” He turned away and went back to sleep.


	15. Road trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Matt meet up and talk in the nether.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, struggled to make it work. -_-' As always thank you to CalmWaveofChaos!

The next morning, Jeremy got up later than the others and grabbed his bag and sword, intending to go to the nether and talk with Matt while also gathering a few things. Before that, though, he went out to see if he could try to convince anyone to help him find cactus again. He wasn't sure how far away a desert biome was, but given their expeditions earlier and their trip to the cove, it was probably going to be awhile.

As he stepped into the main area of the cove he saw Gavin, Geoff, Michael, and Ryan fixing Gav’s windows and roof. “Hey, last chance guys! Anyone want to come to find cactus with me?” Jeremy asked, leaning on Gavin house.

“Nah Jeremy, it's all you buddy!” Michael called from his spot on the roof. “You got it, just bring a mic with you and tell us how it goes.”

“Hey, I got an idea!” Geoff popped out from a broken window toward the ceiling.

“Don't say it…” Jeremy groaned.

“I just think this would be a really good time to talk with your boyfriend. Spend some quality time together,” Geoff said smugly.

Jeremy put his face in his hands groaning, “He's not my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, Geoff, they broke up! Have some compassion,” Gavin added.

“Fuck you guys, I just wanted to know if I'm still going out on my own.” Jeremy glared over his hands.

“After a while I'll follow after you Jeremy, I've got a few things to finish up first,” Ryan said helpfully.

“When are you leaving anyway?” asked Gavin.

“I figure I could get some stuff prepared today and maybe half of tomorrow before I head out,” Jeremy said. He mostly wanted to have time to tell Matt where he was going, and still have time to talk to him about meeting the others. He wasn't that worried about leaving Matt, but he wasn't ashamed to admit that he might miss him a little. And despite the teasing from the others, he actually thought about asking if Matt wanted to join, but didn't want to overstep or make Matt uncomfortable. Besides, he probably wouldn't be gone that long anyway.

“Sounds good, you need anything for the trip?” Ryan asked.

“Not right now, I'm going to get some stuff from the nether. But can you help me make a couple of health potions when I get back?” Jeremy asked. 

“Yeah, I'll go get the potion stand in a sec,” Ryan responded.

“Alright, I'll be back in a bit. Try not to burn Gav's house again guys,” Jeremy said as he walked to the portal.

“It wasn't me! How many times do I have to say it!” Geoff screamed.

As Jeremy walked into the portal he heard Michael respond, “Geoff, he didn't even say it was you.” 

On the other side of the portal, Jeremy looked around, checking for enemies before heading up to Matt's cave. He grabbed a batch of nether wart on his way up so that the others didn't question him. 

Coming to the entrance of the cave, he came face to face with Matt's hoard. Matt wasn't anywhere in site though, so Jeremy came closer to the edge of the mountains of dust. As he did he noticed that among the redstone and bits of glowstone and gems sat the mask he bought him on top of one of the mountains closest to Jeremy. It stuck out against the treasure surrounding it. As Jeremy looked at the mask some of the redstone shifted; when he looked over Jeremy saw Matt stick his dragon head out. When Matt saw him he shook his head, yawning before getting up to come greet him. Getting closer, Matt dipped his head, picking up a cape from a pillar of redstone before shifting into his human body. Matt quickly rapped his shoulders with the cape and walked up to Jeremy. “Hey, Jerem! You're here early?” Matt asked.

“Yeah, I need to get some nether wart. I figured I could talk while I was here,” Jeremy said as he and Matt sat down with their backs against the redstone. “Also I wanted to tell you, I might be away for awhile.”

“What do you mean?” Matt asked, tilting his head.

“Well, I'm gonna go find a desert, and I don't know how long it will take,” Jeremy said, shifting against the redstone comfortably. He thought for a second that Matt twitched at seeing the shift of the dust around him before his face went back to neutral.

“So you want some help?” Matt asked immediately.

Jeremy was shocked for a second. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, I mean, with me flying it would go quicker right? Wouldn't it be easier with two of us?” Mat acted like it was the most obvious thing in the world that he came along.

“Yeah! I'll mean if you're sure? I don't know how long we'll be gone” Jeremy failed to stop a smile on his face. 

“Yeah, it's no problem,” Matt shrugged, “Uh, give me time to like, protect my hoard and I'll be good. I don't want another dragon touching my stuff.” Matt smiled back.

“Fuck yeah! Of course!” Jeremy slung an arm around Matt's shoulder, “Team Matt and Jeremy going on a trip to the desert! It'll be great.”

“That's a shitty team name, but alright,” Matt chuckled. “So when do you want to head out?”

“Think you can be ready by tomorrow afternoonish?”

“Sounds good.”

“Alright, now,” Jeremy paused. “How are we going get you past the others?”

“Oh yeah,” Matt's face dropped a little. “This is just a you and me thing right? I'm not like, taking you away from the others?”

“You're the only one that even offered to come; everyone else gave me an excuse,” Jeremy deadpanned, holding onto Matt's shoulder.

“Heh, alright,” Matt's face brightened back up.

“But uh, if you're okay with, and stop me if it's a no! If you're okay with meeting them for like a few minutes, I can just say you offered to help and we can meet at the portal?” Jeremy tensed, waiting for Matt's response. He half expected Matt to suddenly back out of the whole trip. 

But to his surprise, Matt responded with, “Can it just be a couple of them? I'm still not sure about meeting everyone at once.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened and he smiled excitedly. “Of course! No problem! I'll try to limit the guys, no worry!” Jeremy's arm tightened around Matt's neck so that they bumped shoulders, and Matt had to catch himself on Jeremy's legs to keep from falling.

“Easy Jerem!” Matt laughed.

“Sorry!” Jeremy laughed, “I do have to warn you though, they're going to tease you. Mostly about me.” 

“So I get to make fun of you and go on an adventure? Sounds great,” Matt laughed.

“Aye!” Jeremy yelled, still laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always I appreciate any comments I get!


	16. Potions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy gets ready for his and Matt's road trip together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you to CalmWaveofChaos! The best support I could ask for.

Jeremy poofed from the portal back into the cove. Taking a second to reorient himself, he saw Trevor and Jack walking back from the farm. “Hey Jeremy, see any dragons?” Jack said stopping to talk.

“Oh yeah, whatever happened to that dragon?” Trevor asked, stopping as well.

“Nah, I haven't seen it since the first time," Jeremy lied instantly. He didn't want the others to go looking for Matt, so he figured he should keep as quiet as possible about it. 

“That's good, I was thinking about using the nether for some games or something. Ryan was telling me about bringing a ghast through the portal, and I don't want to get eaten while we try,” Trevor laughed.

“It probably has a nest that it's guarding or something,” Jack added.

“Yeah, I uh, met up with my buddy in the nether actually,” Jeremy said, quickly trying to change the topic. “He didn't mention seeing the dragon, but I'll ask next time I see him.”

“You're ex was in the nether? Are we gonna get to meet him? Or would that be too awkward for you?” Trevor immediately started teasing him.

“He’s not my ex,” Jeremy groaned, “but maybe. He offered to help me find a desert, so tomorrow we're gonna meet here.”

“Awe you guys are going on a vacation together?” Jack said sweetly.

“So does that mean you're getting back together!” Trevor clapped Jeremy on the shoulder, “I knew it was only a matter of time, you and… what's his name?”

“Matt,” Jeremy said, reluctantly going along with him.

“You and Matt going on adventures, searching the world for cactus together, it's beautiful.” Trevor looked off into the distance dramatically.

“I hate this,” Jeremy deadpanned.

“Nah you love this,” Trevor said, matter of fact.

“But I am warning you guys, he's not uh, a people person,” Jeremy said, “He'll be uncomfortable if everyone's here bombarding him with questions, so maybe go easy on him, ok.” He hoped that this would be enough to maybe calm everyone down about his boyfriend… fuck now he's doing it!

“You got it Jeremy, we’ll be cool as a cucumber,” Trevor said as he began walking again, “I don't think I'll be here for that long anyway, so I might miss him, I've got to get my sword that someone forgot.” Trevor gave him a pointed look before turning toward Jack's house.

“It'll be fine Jeremy, we'll see you in a bit, we're making bread for tonight,” Jack said, following Trevor.

“Alright, later,” Jeremy said, before turning to Gavin’s messy house to find Ryan. The others were still working on the house as Jeremy came over. “Hey, Ryan! You got your potion stand out?” Jeremy called, looking up at Ryan on the edge of the Gavin roof.

Ryan looked down. “Yeah, I brought it down gimme a sec.” Ryan made his way down from Gavin's house, jumping into a pool of water in his living room. A few seconds later he emerged with the potion stand in hand. "Let's go to the beach, I didn't make any bottles so we're gonna have to get some sand real quick.” 

“Ah Ryan I thought you had everything done,” Jeremy groaned, exaggerating his discontent.

“It'll be two seconds, quit your whining,” Ryan said, already on his way to the edge of the logo.

Jeremy followed behind, getting out a shovel. “So are we just gonna dig up the beach?”

“A little, I just need enough for a couple of bottles.” Ryan dug his shovel into the sand. "How many potions are you bringing?”

“I don't think I'll need that many, I just want a couple of health potions for Matt and me,”  
Jeremy said as he started digging up some sand as well. 

“Wait, you and Matt? Is that your friend?” Ryan looked back up at Jeremy, “I thought you said he wasn't going?” Ryan smirked. 

“Yeah, I didn't think he'd wanna come cause everyone else made an excuse, but turns out he's the only decent person around here,” Jeremy said without looking up to address Ryan. “He's gonna meet me at the nether portal tomorrow.”

“You know Geoff's never gonna let this go right?” Ryan said, still smirking.

“I figured. Actually, can you help me talk to them? Matt isn't really good with new people and I don't want to bombard him with everyone,” Jeremy said, finally looking up.

Ryan didn't hesitate to agree, “Yeah I get it, you guys gonna head out as soon as he gets here?” 

Jeremy let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, “Yeah, we figure it would help to just go as soon as possible. He has some things he's got to do first and then we should be good.” Also, it would be the perfect time for most of the others to be busy so they weren't here to freak out Matt. 

“Makes sense, anyway, we haven't actually collected any sand while we were talking,” Ryan said passively.

Jeremy looked down at his shovel that was still buried in the sand before groaning, “Fuck!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience, and all comments and suggestions I get.


	17. Hey Matt! What are we doing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy gets ready for his cactus trip and the others are excited to meet Matt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always Thank You to CalmWaveofChaos! Best and most patient editor!

The next morning Jeremy was in his house, packing a bag for the trip. He and Ryan had made ten health potions, half of which were splash potions because why not. They also spent some time making invisibility potions, but he was gonna leave most of those at home; he was only going to bring two to show Matt. He also packed two swords, a bow with a stack of arrows, and a set of tools in case they needed to make a quick shelter or something. After that, he found his Mic under his bed. The Mic was mostly used for when they all did let's plays as it was a good way for team communication, but since they've just settled into the cove it has mostly been left in their houses.

After gearing up he slung his bag over his shoulder and headed out of his house to grab some bread from the farm. Heading up the beach to the main area, he saw Michael and Gavin were carrying swords. When they saw Jeremy they waved him over. “Hey Lil’ J! You getting ready to head out?” Gavin called.

“Yeah, soon as Matt gets here,” Jeremy said as he walked over. Last night, while they all ate, he talked to the others and explained that Matt wasn't good with people and he didn't want to make him uncomfortable. Luckily, they actually listened and agreed that not everyone would be here to bother him.

“I wish we could meet your boyfriend Jeremy,” Gavin said sadly.

“Yeah, Gav and I are gonna go hunting, so we'll miss him,” Michael looked around, pretending to tell Jeremy a secret. “I'm mostly going on the hunt to keep Gavin away.”

“OI!” Gavin yelled.

“Yeah, yeah, let's go. Don't forget to check in with us, we'll see you when you get back.” Michael led Gavin towards the other side of the mountain, around Trevor's house.

“I'll be back before you know I'm gone,” Jeremy said, watching them go. He walked to the farm and looked in a chest. While he did he saw Jack planting some new seeds. 

"Hey, Jack.”

“Hey Jeremy, getting ready to head out?” Jack asked, finishing a row of plants. 

“Yeah, just taking a stack of bread for me and Matt,” Jeremy called, filling his bag.

“Aww that's sweet,” Jack cooed.

“Shut up,” Jeremy said, although he was chuckling.

“Well I'm gonna head out, good luck Jeremy,” Jack said, heading in the direction of the village. 

Jeremy waved him off. He finished packing up the bread and closed the chest. He looked at the portal breifly, then headed to the chest by the logo. He and Ryan had left some bottles down there, and since he was going to the desert he figured he should bring some water just in case. He considered bringing some diet coke for Matt, maybe Lindsay or Geoff had some. He went over to Michael and Lindsay’s house to see if they had anything that wouldn't hurt Matt. When he got there he saw Lindsay, Trevor, and Alfredo talking on the beach. “Hey, Jeremy! Getting ready to head out?” Alfredo asked as he walked up.

“Almost, just getting some things still. Do any of you guys have any coke? I wanna bring some with us,” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, I got you, hold on,” Lindsay said, going up to her house.

“So… are we meeting your boyfriend today?” Trevor asked, leaning into Jeremy.

“Shut up, yeah, but I don't know when he'll be here,” Jeremy said while pushing Trevor away.

“Can I meet him, Jeremy?” Alfredo asked.

“I already said I don't know when he'll get here,” Jeremy said again.

“He's already here,” Lindsay said as she came back down.

“What?” Jeremy asked dumbfounded, looking over past Trevor to the portal. 

“Yeah, he's over there talking to Ryan,” she said, handing him a couple of cans of diet coke. 

“Oh shit!” Jeremy said, quickly putting the drinks in his bag. He made his way over to the portal while Trevor, Lindsay, and Alfredo followed after him at a slightly slower pace. 

He caught the tail end of Matt and Ryan's conversation while walking over. “Well he basically just kinda walked in and it was kinda awkward cause I wasn't really wearing clothes,” Matt said while he leaned on the portal.

There was a moment where Jeremy wondered why the portal hadn't exploded like before, but then again it hadn't happened when he went in earlier. But more importantly, he wondered what the fuck was he was talking about. "Hey Matt, what are you talking about?”

“Oh, he was just telling me how you broke into his house when you met,” Ryan said, chuckling.

Jeremy came closer to stand at his side. “I didn't break into your house, your house didn't have a door!” Jeremy laughed while hitting Matt's arm gently.

“Whoa Jeremy, you broke into this man's house?” Alfredo said, standing with Trevor and Lindsay as they stopped closer to Ryan in order to let Matt have his space. 

Matt, seeing everyone come closer, had shifted to stand closer to Jeremy so that they were practically shoulder to shoulder. “Uh, yeah, but to be fair I didn't really have a door.”

“What do you mean you didn't have a door?” Trevor asked, taken aback.

“Not everyone can afford doors, Trevor!” Lindsay laughed.

“He was still building it, and I thought it was just some abandoned building. Not my fault he wasn't done!” Jeremy defended himself.

“Come on Jeremy, you can't walk into the man's house though,” Alfredo said, faking disappointment.

“I didn't break into his house!” Jeremy yelled. “Matt, tell them!”

“I mean… you kinda did?” Matt answered with a small smile.

“Unbelievable,” Jeremy said, fighting a smile off his face.

“So Jeremy, you want to introduce your boyfriend?” Trevor asked. Jeremy noted how weirdly sincere he sounded.

“Ugh… Matt, this is Ryan, Alfredo, Lindsay, and of course, Trevor,” Jeremy pointed them all out.

“Hey,” Matt said, shifting uncomfortably on his feet.

“Hey, it's nice to meet Jeremy's boyfriend, or is it ex, he said you guys aren't dating?” Lindsay asked, putting her hand under her chin and smiling mockingly at Jeremy.

“Oh my god! Already?” Jeremy put his face in his hands.

“Wow, you weren't kidding huh,” Matt looked at Jeremy.

“I knew it would just get worse if they met you.” Jeremy let his face go and looked exasperatedly at the others.

“Aww come on Jeremy, it could be worse,” Ryan laughed.

“Yeah, Geoff could be here,” Alfredo added.

“Actually, that does make me wonder where this all started?” Matt asked.

“Geoff!” they all said in unison.

“He does this shit all the time!” Jeremy sounded frustrated, "It's funny for a second then we all run it unto the ground!”

“That's pretty accurate,” Alfredo nodded.

“Ugh, anyway, you all set Matt?” Jeremy rubbed his face again before looking at Matt.

“Yeah, let's go,” Matt smiled back at Jeremy. His smile managed to make Jeremy smile back.

“Alright, I got my Mic, so I'll send you guys updates every once in a while on how we're doing.” Jeremy looked at the others. They all had a sort of a knowing smile on their faces, but Jeremy didn't want to deal with more teasing so he decided to let it go.

“Have fun on your date, Jeremy!” Trevor said cheekily, walking away.

“See ya later Lil’ J!” Alfredo called, following Trevor.

“Good luck, Jeremy,” Lindsay said as she joined them.

“If you guys need help or anything ask me, I'll keep my Mic nearby just in case,” Ryan said, watching as Matt and Jeremy started towards the entrance to the cove over by Trevor's house. 

“Thanks, Ryan!” Jeremy called, leading Matt out of the cove.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always I appreciate any suggestions and comments you have!


	18. Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Jeremy talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the unintended break, I was working on a Halloween story called Meeting a Ghost. Go ahead for a read, I'm really proud how at it turned out. 
> 
> As always thanks to CalmWaveofChaos, my best editor! Who is patient and kind, also I am super behind on this so I'm uploading this before they edit.
> 
> I edited this a little bit after it was posted in a bit of a tired rush, so ignore any commas that should be periods and vice versa.  
> -CWoC

“So, what'd you think of the others?” Jeremy asked as he and Matt made their way into a forest.

“Eh,” Matt shrugged, about to add more before Jeremy interrupted.

“Eh?!” Jeremy yelled, hitting Matt's shoulder, “What do you mean eh?!”

“Let me finish, let me finish!” Matt said laughing. “I was gonna say they weren't as intimidating as I thought. They were funny,” Matt said, shrugging again.

“That's good at least. I tried to at least limit how many people you met, but I wasn't really sure when you were coming over,” Jeremy said, rubbing the back of his head. “At least the others weren't there, I'm pretty sure Gavin wouldn't have left you alone.”

Matt laughed at that. “What do you mean?”

“He's just kind of an asshole; once he ground up a bunch of candy and left it in Trevor's bed," Jeremy said, “I hate him, he's just the most irritating person.” Jeremy scrubbed his face in irritation.

“Wow, you're really frustrated." Matt looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

“If you meet him you'll understand,” Jeremy laughed before he decided to change the subject so that he didn't start screaming about Gavin. “Also, before you think I forgot, I didn't break into your house.”

“No, but you did walk into a dragon's den. That's probably way worse, you're lucky I didn't eat you,” Matt smiled. 

Jeremy suddenly stopped walking. “Holy shit, you could've eaten me!”

“Did that never occur to you?” Matt stopped and turned to face him. “You walked into a dragon's hoard all nonchalantly, what did you think might happen?”

“I don't know!” Jeremy looked at Matt, “Content?!” 

Matt made a gruff noise that sounded like a huff but came out as a laugh. “Content? You pet a dragon, you're probably gonna get burned, buddy.” Matt patted Jeremy's shoulder and started walking again, leading Jeremy along.

Jeremy finally snapped out of it. “Well, why didn't you eat me then?” he looked at Matt, genuinely confused.

“You gave me redstone, and then walked into my cave with more. I wanted to know what was going on,” Matt said, looking back. “You were either crazy or were gonna give me more redstone, probably both.”

“So I'm just free redstone to you?” 

“Don't be like that,” Matt chuckled, finally letting his hand drop from his shoulder. “Now we're friends, team… Dragon?” Matt looked unhappy at the team name.

“Nice team name Matt, well have to work on that. We'll think about a team name later,” Jeremy said as they continued to walk. “How long do you think until we find a desert?”

“Well, I could always just fly us around until we find one.”

Suddenly Jeremy froze up. “Uh, I'll pass. I'm not one for heights.”

“Oh, really? Sorry, I didn't realize-,” Matt said apologetically.

“Nah, it's fine. I just don't really like the idea of flying fifty feet in the air,” Jeremy shuddered. “Can we just walk?”

“Yeah, of course, we can use that time to come up with a better team name.”

“Yeah. Actually, before I forget. Did you notice the portal?”

“Wha, oh! How it didn't explode?” 

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, I don't understand why that happened? Maybe it happens like once? And then I guess it got it all out of its system?”

“I guess it's just picky sometimes? Actually, it would get weird when Ryan would go through it too. It happened for a day and then stopped, we still don't know why it happened.”

“Yeah… actually, about Ryan?”

“Did he say something creepy? He can be kinda… murdery, sometimes. But he's mostly harmless, what'd he say?”

“No, no he's fine! What do you mean murdery?”

“He's can be a little crazy sometimes, for a while he kept a cow in a hole.”

“Why?!”

“As he put it, it got stuck in his house and kept breaking his bed. So he just dug a hole in his house, where he kept it and a bunch of other things.”

“Oh, I get it.”

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s… well, stuff like that probably makes way more sense to me.”

“Wait, so if you built a house you'd have a hole to hide valuables in?”

“Well, like at first, yeah, but I'd probably build that in. Cause I'd want to keep it somewhere I know it's gonna be safe, but I'd also build a really nice looking house. So I might have a special or secret room for it. Dragons typically want to keep an eye on their hoard, so it's easier if it's in your house.”

“Huh, so is your hoard your house or is it a part of your house?” 

“Well I sleep in mine for the most part, so if anything it's my bed.”

“Oh yeah huh, is it weird that I've been near your hoard?”

“Well… it's hard to explain.” Suddenly Matt blushed. “It's more… I don't really know how to explain it.”

“Was it like when you were in my house?”

“I don't know, it's more personal.”

“Oh, wait,” then Jeremy blushed, “is it?”

“I- kinda? Maybe? If I'm being honest, don’t have a lot of expertise in this particular area?”

“Should I, not go into your cave?”

“No!” Matt said quickly.

“No?”

“...No, I don't really… mind? You being in my, cave.” Matt's face was getting redder as he talked.

Jeremy and Matt walked in awkward silence for a little bit before Jeremy finally decided to break it. “Thanks? I mean assuming this isn't just a chance to get more redstone.”

“Oh it’s still partly that, but now I get a buddy to go along with the treasure,” Matt smiled warmly at Jeremy.

“Awe, thanks, Matt.”

“No problem Jerem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! I go back and read them so I really appreciate them.


	19. HiveMind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Matt start their journey together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to CalmWaveofChaos! I'm also glad to be back writing again!

“That's a lot of water,” Matt said as they stopped at the edge of a beach. They had walked for most of the day, and it was almost sunset now.

“Fuck yeah it is, might be an ocean? Looks like we're gonna have to set up a camp,” Jeremy said as he looked out at the sea. In the distance, he could make out the edge of another coast. “It's gonna be night soon, and monsters are gonna show up.”

“Alright, I could make a fire for us?” Matt offered as they turned to the mostly empty field surrounding them.

“...Can you breathe fire as a person?” Jeremy asked as he dropped his bag.

“I… don't know? I haven't really tried? Hold on.” Matt took a breath before he suddenly started coughing. 

“You okay?” Jeremy came up behind Matt and patted his back.

“Y-Yeah, just one sec." Matt coughed up something, spitting what looked like some lava onto the grass that started to catch fire.

“What the fuck? Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, it just kinda hurt. I guess I can't breathe fire like this,” Matt said as he coughed.

“But you can spit out some lava if you start coughing, apparently?” Jeremy reassured, leading Matt to sit down. The lava slowly cooled on the ground in front of them.

“Heh, I guess so, huh? Let's try not to do that again, though.” Matt smiled, still coughing and leaning on Jeremy.

Jeremy rubbed Matt's back until Matt's cough finally stopped. “Alright, I'm gonna go get some wood so we can make a little hidey shack. I'll be right back.”

Jeremy went to his bag grabbing his iron ax before he walked to a tree not to far from where they sat. He gathered some wood, turning it into planks so that he had enough to build a house for him and Matt. Making his way back, he noticed something moving slowly toward them. “Hey, Jerem? What's that over there?” Matt called, watching the zombie shuffle near them.

“Shit, hold on, I got it!” Jeremy said, running to Matt and grabbing his sword. “That's a zombie,” Jeremy said, going up to it ready to attack.

“Wait, a what?”

“Uh, dead thing that tries to eat us?” Jeremy raised his sword and sent a quick slice into the zombie's arm. “They're one of the mobs that spawn at night.” With one more slash of his sword he successfully killed the zombie, leaving its rotten flesh on the ground.

“Oh, like the creepers?” Matt asked as Jeremy came back to him.

“Yeah, we just gotta build a little house for tonight so no more attack us,” Jeremy said, giving Matt a hand to help him up. They both gathered the wood and put together a small house that they could both barely fit in. It had no windows and looked more like a poorly done shed, but it would do for the night. Jeremy also figured that they could reuse the wood to make a boat tomorrow to get past the sea, but he'd talk to Matt about that the next morning.

“Are there any other monsters I should know about?” Matt asked as they added a door to their little house (or more accurately room). 

“Uh yeah, there a couple. You got zombies and creepers, those you've seen. And there are endermen, skeletons, and spiders. Oh, there are also these little zombies, we call them Verns.”

“Ok, I still don't really know what any of those are?”

“Yeah, I mean-”

“I guess little zombies I can figure out but uh? What are the rest?”

“Well, for the most part, they're not that dangerous. They're just kind of annoying? They all pretty much walk towards you trying to murder you. Except for endermen! They're these tall black skinny leg things that can teleport. They don't like people looking at them,” Jeremy said as they finished off the room. When they went inside he realized just how small the room was, a three by three block room that barely fit them inside. They set their bags down in a corner, and Jeremy set a torch on the wall next to the door.

“That sounds creepy,” Matt said as he sat down against a wall. “I mean, if push comes to shove I'll just dragon them.”

“Dragon them?” Jeremy raised an eyebrow and sat down next to matt. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means I turn into a dragon and ya know, dragon them,” Matt said unhelpfully.

“Oh yeah that makes total sense,” Jeremy laughed.

“Yeah, see, great minds think alike!”

“Yeah team, uh, team hive mind?” 

“Oh hey, that actually sounds pretty good.”

“Yeah, there we go, team hivemind!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I appreciate any comments and suggestions I get!


	20. Matt's POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt talks to Ryan and can't sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you to CWoC! I appreciate them and all the work that they do!

Jeremy was laying on his back, half-awake with one arm on his chest and the other being used as a pillow. Matt was next to him, also on his back with his arms folded over his stomach, but he was wide awake. “...Do you think I could touch a torch?”

“...what?” Jeremy asked, barely awake at this point. He really hoped that Matt wasn't considering doing that, especially when he's too tired to help him if he gets burned.

“Cause as a dragon I can swim in lava no problem, but I'm pretty sure people can't do that. So can I?” Matt said, waving his arms, obviously not going to sleep any time soon.

“I don't know Matt, just go to sleep, we'll figure it out tomorrow,” Jeremy said, turning over to try and fall asleep. 

After a few minutes of silence, he was finally starting to drift off when Matt whispered, "Jerem?”

He didn't answer, too tired to speak. Behind him Matt shifted around, trying to get comfortable. After a while of shifting he could hear his Mic let out a quiet, “Jeremy, you there?” Jeremy figured he could respond to Ryan tomorrow. He hears Matt reach into his bag and pull out the Mic. 

“Uh hey, he's asleep?” Matt sounded confused; he must not have fully understood how the Mic worked.

“Oh hey, Matt! Sorry, I'll let you guys sleep.”

“No, no, it's fine!” Matt said, standing up and leaving their little cabin to talk to Ryan outside. Finally left in silence, Jeremy was able to fall completely asleep. 

 

Matt sat outside and talked to Ryan while looking out at the beach. He liked how the water looked in the night, as he didn't see many things like this in the nether. “So how's the trip so far?” Ryan asked.

“Not bad, but we just ran into an ocean,” Matt answered.

“Ah, that sucks, you gonna try to boat it or go around?” 

“I think Jeremy and I will figure it out tomorrow, he’s pretty tired.”

“Yeah, what about you?”

“Huh?”

“Couldn't get comfortable?”

“Yeah, I've never really been away from… my bed?” He wasn't really sure what else he would call his hoard.

“You can say hoard, it's just you and me Matt.” Luckily Ryan seemed to get it.

“Oh thank God, yeah, I'm used to sleeping like a dragon! How do you do it?” Matt was exasperated, he'd never stayed human for so long.

“Heh heh heh, you kinda get used to it,” Ryan chuckled. “If it helps, sometimes I sleep in a different form.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I still sleep as a cat sometimes. I think 'cause cats are more similar to dragons than people it's comfier? I don't know, it does help sometimes though.”

“I mean I'll try it, better than staying up all night.”

“Speaking of, I need to go to sleep.”

Matt quickly spoke up, “Oh hey, Ryan?” 

“What's up?”

“Why.. don't the others know about you?”

“...I'm gonna be completely honest with you,” Ryan sounded serious.

“Yeah?”

“I've known them for so long, at this point I feel awkward about it.”

“What! What do you mean?”

“Well at first, I was just scared they would kill me. But then I was like 'they'll never trust me.' Now I just feel like it'll be really weird if I do?”

“That's the worst excuse!”

“Well, you told Jeremy after he walked into your house!”

“Touché I guess?” Matt giggled.

“Alright, I'm going to bed. Night Matt.”

“Night Ryan,” Matt said as Ryan ended the call. He took one last look at the open sea before he got up to go inside.

When he went back in he saw Jeremy fast asleep on his back. He must have turned over while Matt was outside; both of his arms were tucked under his head as a pillow. Matt watched him for a second, making sure he was asleep, before taking off his clothes. When he was done he changed back into a cat, the same shape as before. Settled in his cat form, he shook out his fur and stretched his limbs. He went back to where he originally laid and looked at Jeremy. He shuffled his paws and struggled with his draconic instincts. He didn't tell Ryan this, and especially didn't tell Jeremy this, but part of the reason that he couldn't sleep was because he wasn't protecting his hoard. As a dragon, he always slept on top of or surrounded by his hoard as a way to protect it. And recently he had begun to think of Jeremy as part of his hoard. He usually had his own treasure to worry about in the nether, but without it his instincts were focusing on the one treasure it could: Jeremy. And his dumb dragon brain wanted him to lay on top of Jeremy to protect him. It was frustrating, to say the least. He knew Jeremy was fine, he'd wake up the next morning perfectly fine and they'd get on with their lives. But, maybe because he was a cat, he couldn't really help himself. 

He padded slowly closer to Jeremy, very careful to not wake him. Pressing one paw at a time, he climbed onto Jeremy's chest. He looked at Jeremy's face to make sure he didn't make him uncomfortable and laid down with his front paws resting in front of him. Finally comfortable, he rested his head on his paws and went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love any comments and suggestions I get! Also, here's to finally getting Ryan and Matt dragon talk!


	21. Closer look

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy gets a closer look at Matt's dragon form.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, Thanks to CWoC for their editing work! Also this chapter is basically so I could do matts dragon look justice, but this is my interpretation.

Jeremy woke up the next morning to a light weight on his chest. He didn't react at first, ignoring it in favor of getting some more sleep before getting up. After a few minutes of just laying on his back, he felt the weight shift on him, which finally caused him to stir enough to open his eyes. Looking down, he saw a familiar cat curled on his chest. For a minute he thought that maybe he was still asleep, scrubbing his face to make sure he was awake. Sure enough, the cat was still there. Turning his head, he confirmed that this was indeed Matt laying on top of him, as the spot he was in last night was empty. Now he wasn't sure what to do about this; should he wake Matt up or just let him sleep? While thinking about this he absent-mindedly scratched Matt's neck. His fur was extremely soft under his fingers as he pet him, and Matt started purring as he continued his ministrations. After a minute of petting, Matt finally stirred. “Morning, comfortable?” Jeremy smirked.

Matt jumped and puffed out his fur, accidentally scratching Jeremy with his long claws. “Ow ow ow, watch the claws!” Jeremy picked Matt up, setting him gently to the side. “Jeez Matt, see what happens next time I let you use me as a pillow!” After setting Matt down, he watched him slowly deflate from his panicked state. 

“Alright, so wanna get changed while I get us some lamb for breakfast?” Jeremy gave Matt one more pet before standing.

“Mrow,” Matt answered, standing and shaking out his fur.

Jeremy grabbed his sword and left the shack, surveying the land around them. He noticed a few leftover creepers from the night before, but didn't see a lot of sheep. They might have to just use some of the food Jeremy brought, but he hoped for something fresher. Behind him, he heard the door open. “Uh, hey, Jerem?” He turned and saw Matt with his cloak around his shoulders with nothing underneath.

Jeremy blushed and made sure not to look too far down. “Yeah, yep, what’s up?”

“I could go get us something? Probably be easier?” Matt offered.

“Yeah, that'd be sweet! Thanks! Oh, before you go, through? How would you feel about being in a boat?” Jeremy asked, putting his sword in his quick bar belt.

“Uh, I'll give it a shot, but if I get burned I reserve the right to turn back into a dragon and go to the next dry land available.”

“That's fair!” Jeremy laughed. 

Matt took the edges of the cloak and positioned them so that it still hid his body, dropping it as he changed his shape. 

Watching him change was interesting, to say the least. His body seemed to disappear in a puff of fire and smoke before he reemerged as a dragon. Jeremy also took a second to look him over as he didn't really get a chance to see him so close up before. Most of his body was covered in scales, with different shades that were reminiscent of netherack, except he seemed more red than pink. He had horns curling around his ears; they were a dark brownish-gray and stuck out against the long feathers on his head. The feathers framed his face and were a dark red-brown that matched nether brick, and had red tips similar to the highlights in his hair. They ran down his neck, spread at his wings and continued to the tip of his tail. His wings were half-feathered and leathery, with the top half of his wings covered in feathers. His tail was long and ended with a large fan of feathers that shifted with each movement.

His cloak fell off, landing on Jeremy’s face. “Hey! Watch it,” Jeremy laughed.

Matt let out a trill that sounded like he was laughing at him.

“Alright asshole,” Jeremy hit Matt's side, “I'm gonna take down the house and make a boat.”

Matt nodded, then spread his wings and flew off. Jeremy watched him go, shielding his eyes from the gust of wind. After Matt was gone Jeremy went to cut down the house. 

He went into the shack to pull out their bags and made sure he left nothing behind. Afterwards, he pulled out his axe and went to work cutting down all the wood. Using the wood he made a crafting table and started to work on his boat. It wasn't long before Matt came back with a cow hanging from his jaws. Looking up Jeremy greeted him, “Hey, one sec I'm almost done.”

Matt nodded and set the cow down, then let out a small breath of fire on the ground next to it. As the grass caught fire he panicked, and knocked an extra block of wood onto it that quickly caught fire. 

“Oh, hey, you started a fire, cool! Thanks,” Jeremy said, oblivious to Matt's panic. “I'll make breakfast if you want to change." Matt awkwardly shuffled to his bag to change back into a human.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love reading all the comments so Thanks!


	22. Boat boys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and matt set off into the sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took forever, I got zelda botw and got distracted,
> 
> I'll try to focus on this again :)

Jeremy sat cooking steaks for his and Matt's breakfast while waiting for the dragon to finish changing. Without a furnace, he had to cook over the fire Matt had started, which meant it would take longer to make. By the time Matt finished putting on his clothes, he was half-way done with their steaks. “Hey, I'm almost done with breakfast. We can head out after,” he said as Matt sat down next to him.

“Yeah, sounds good. Oh! Dude, look,” Matt held his arms up for Jeremy to see, “I think I'm getting better at being a person. I got less scales this time!”

“Oh, nice, let me see!” Without thinking he grabbed Matt's hand and looked at the scales covering it. Before the scales had stopped above his elbow, but now they were just above his wrist. “Soon you probably won't need uh-” he let go of Matt's hand, blushing, “um, gloves anymore.”

Matt looked confused at his reaction to holding his hand, but given that he slept on top of him this morning, he didn't say anything. 

After they finished breakfast they grabbed their things and headed to the boat that Jeremy had finished while Matt was out hunting. Packing up all the extra supplies Jeremy had left out, they placed their bags into the boat. “Alright, you sit and I'll push us into the water.”

“Sounds good,” Matt said, getting into the boat slowly.

“You ready?” Jeremy said, holding on to the edge of the boat and waiting for Matt to give the ok.

Matt nodded, shaking slightly. He had a firm grip on the sides of the boat, digging his claws into the wood. 

Slowly Jeremy pushed the boat into the water. When it was far enough in Jeremy got in the boat, and sat across from Matt. “You all good over there?” Jeremy chuckled.

“Yep, fine, why?” Matt said, not releasing his claws from the boat.

“I don't know, just wanted to see if you planned on letting go of the boat anytime soon,” Jeremy laughed as Matt finally let go.

“Oh fuck you, imagine if this was lava. You'd be scared too,” Matt defended himself. Jeremy laughed and started rowing slowly as Matt looked down at the water. “If I didn't know this would burn my hands I would dip my fingers in.” 

“Well, don't lose your hands, you're gonna row us back.”

“Damn it.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the motion of the water as well as the view, before Jeremy spoke up again. “So, how'd you sleep?”, he smiled smugly. 

Matt's face immediately turned red. “Uh, fine, good.”

“Is that why you decided to use me as a pillow?”

“Alright, first of all-” Matt said loudly, “I didn't use you as a pillow. I used you as a bed! Second, you didn't seem to mind when you were petting me!”

This time it was Jeremy's turn to blush. “I woke up to a cat on my chest, what did you want me to do?”

“Not be mean to me,” Matt huffed.

“I'm just teasing you big goof,” Jeremy laughed. “Why were you a cat anyway?”

“I couldn't sleep,” Matt shrugged.

“So, cat?”

“I, uh, guess it's… more similar to being a dragon?” He didn't sound sure. “I couldn't sleep like a dragon cause I wouldn't really fit in a small room, so cat.”

Jeremy gave a little laugh. “Alright, next time we'll try to build a bigger house, ok?”

Matt smiled at that. “Yeah, sounds good.”

“Unless we see a desert at the next coast,” Jeremy said as the boat hit a sandy beach. Unfortunately, this was a clay beach with no desert in sight. “God damnit.”

As they got out of the boat Matt patted his back. “I'm sure we're not that far. We’ll get there,” he offered with a smile.

“Ugh, I just wish we had a faster way to find it,” Jeremy said as he started sluggishly walking.

“Well-”

“No heights.”

“Well,” Matt said louder, “I could scout around for us if you want?”

“That sounds good, sure.”

“Alright, hold my clothes,” Matt said as he started undressing.

“Way to make it weird Matt,” Jeremy laughed, looking away.

“Shut up,” Matt scoffed. After undressing he transformed into his dragon self. He shook out his feathers, and with a beat of his wings took to the air. 

Jeremy shielded himself from the gust of wind, and watched Matt fly higher to survey the land. After a moment he sat down. “Guess I'll just wait here.” He figured he should use this time to check in with the others, seeing as he would probably be out for a couple of days. He pulled his bag from his back and pulled out his Mic. "Hey guys?”

After a few seconds of silence he got a response, “Hey Jeremy! Find a desert yet?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you to CWoC, and everyone who leaves a comment or a kudos.


	23. Why cactus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy tells Matt why they're looking for cactus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm taking longer to write these, but I'm gonna be writing another fic, so these chapters are gonna uploaded slower.
> 
> As always thank you to CWoC, the best editor I could ask for.

Jeremy let out a heavy sigh, “No, we haven't found a desert yet.”

“Damn, did you at least have a good sleepover?” Geoff responded back.

“Don't start.” Jeremy was already dreading where this conversation was going.

“I just wanted to know if you guys patched things up.” He could hear the smirk in Geoff's voice. “I'm worried about you.”

“No you're not. Anyway, we might be gone longer than I thought, we hit an ocean and still haven't seen any deserts.”

“Fuck, good luck then. Tell us if you need, like, a search party or something. We won't come, but, ya know.”

“Thanks Geoff, so helpful.” 

“So where is Matt? I didn't get a chance to say hi to him.”

“He's… out scouting the beach. We're trying to find which direction to head next,” Jeremy said quickly, trying to hide the fact that Matt had flown away to look ahead.

“Aww damn it, next time.”

“Sure Geoff. Anyway, I should go catch up with him,” Jeremy said as he heard the flap of Matt's wings coming closer.

“Alright, see ya later lil’ J.” And with that, Jeremy put up his Mic.

He stood back up, swinging his bag back over his shoulder. He looked in the direction that he heard Matt's wings. “Hey buddy! Find anything useful?” he called as Matt landed.

Matt shook his head and used a giant paw to grab his clothes off the ground where he left them. Changing his form again, he pulled on his pants. “I didn't see any deserts or cactuses anywhere.”

“Its cacti,” Jeremy said, smirking and looking away from Matt to give him privacy.

“Who gives a shit,” Matt said, laughing and pulling his shirt over his head. “You know what I meant.”

“Yeah, yeah, so nothing? What did you see?”

“Another ocean, I'm pretty sure this is just a big island.” Matt frowned.

“Fuck,” Jeremy groans. 

“So now what?”

“I guess we keep going?” Jeremy scrubbed his face.

“Looks like we don't really have any other options.” Matt shrugged and grabbed his bag, putting it over his shoulder.

“No, we do. I just hate it,” Jeremy pulled his hands down his face, looking over his fingers at Matt. 

“Hmmm?” Matt looked at Jeremy.

“You could fly us around,” Jeremy said, still groaning at the idea. “But I'm gonna be shitting myself the whole time, so I don't want to.”

“I mean, by the sounds of it, neither do I,” Matt laughed.

“It would speed this up though.” Jeremy didn't like the idea, but he knew it would take a whole day to cross an island, and another ocean, to get to an island that may or may not have a desert on it. So either it was this or a days walk.

“I'm all for it, if you're sure. I don't want you freaking out. I'll try to go slow and be close to the ground if it will help you?” Matt patted his shoulder.

“Alright, let's wait until tomorrow. That way I can psych myself up before we go.”

“Whatever works for you,” Matt said as started walking to the next coast. “So, this island isn't that big, we'll probably reach the next coast in a few hours.” 

“God, this is a lot of work for some cactus,” Jeremy groans.

“Yeah, what do you guys need it for anyway?”

“...It's gonna sound real dumb.”

“What?”

“So, we have this logo right?”

“Yeah, and?”

“In our last location, we had this really big logo that was the centerpiece to the whole city.”

“Cool.”

“So I decided to build this one out on the ocean next to our beach.”

“Oh, is that what all the wool is?”

“Yeah, I'm about a third of the way through it.”

“Impressive.”

“Thanks. But uh, the thing is, most of the logo is green-”

“Oh no.”

“So I need-”

“Jeremy why.”

“A shit ton of cactus for this logo,” Jeremy finishes with a laugh.

“Why are you the only one doing this?”

“I don't know?! The others are working on their houses.”

“Jeremy, your house isn't even done. I've been in it, it's just a box.” Matt looked exasperated. 

“Yeah, I actually had to stop building the logo to build that much 'cause I was sleeping in Trevor's house.”

“Why didn't you build your house first!?” Matt yelled.

“I don't know?!” Jeremy burst out laughing. Matt stared at him before joining in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments and suggestions, I appreciate all of it.


	24. Finally, civilization again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Jeremy need to sleep and think about flying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you to CWoC, the best editor I could ask for.

The sun was still high above their heads as they came to the next coast. They stood looking across the water for a nearby island or coast of some kind to set off to next. “So while you were flying around, did you get a good look over the ocean? See any islands?” asked Jeremy, looking for something bigger than their current island.

“I didn't see a lot. All the ones I could see were little islands,” Matt responded.

“Fuck, you gonna be ok with the next boat ride?” Jeremy looked to Matt for any signs that he would be uncomfortable. But to his surprise, he seemed ok.

“Uh, think I'll be fine?” He sounded unsure. “Besides, I got you with me, right?” Matt smiled at Jeremy.

A faint warmth spread across Jeremy's cheeks as he turned away to look back at the ocean, smiling. “Yeah, no problem.”

“Alright, let's do this.” Matt let out a heavy sigh as they got the boat ready. When they had left from the beach earlier Jeremy had made sure he packed the boat back up. And it would prove to be very helpful if they were gonna have to keep crossing oceans. 

Taking out the boat, Jeremy let Matt sit in it first so he could push it further into the water. Again, Matt didn’t seem to realize that he was digging his claw-like nails into the boat. “Matt, at some point you're gonna break the boat,” Jeremy said, pointing to Matt's hand.

“I know, I'm trying, but the water keeps brushing up the side and I'm worried it will get in. And then what? Where can I go for safety, Jerem? Nowhere,” Matt started to ramble.

“Calm down bud,” Jeremy said, climbing into the boat and sitting across from Matt. “I'm here, remember?” he said it in hopes of comforting Matt, feeling like he might have said too much with it. But seeing Matt relax and smile helped him to not think too hard on it.

“Thanks.” Matt finally loosened his grip as Jeremy began rowing them forward.

“So how far off to the next land?”

“Well, the biggest one I could see was down in that direction,” Matt said, pointing to some coast off in the distance. From where they were Jeremy could just barely see the top of a mountain.

“Oh, you've got to be shitting me!” Jeremy groaned, turning them in that direction. “This is gonna take all day!”

Matt laughed. “If it helps, I did see some lights near the beach, so I think there's a village there.”  
\---  
By the time they reached the next coast the sun had begun to set. Matt had to help row for a few hours until they reached the beach. Jeremy got out and pulled the boat farther up on land so that Matt could get out no problem. They grabbed their bags and packed up the boat in case they reached another ocean. Looking around, Jeremy spotted a village a short distance away, and they began making their way towards it.

Matt let out a loud yawn before saying, “Oh thank God, I wanna sleep.”

Jeremy let out a breathy laugh. “Yeah, you gonna actually sleep by yourself this time?”

“Go fuck yourself!" Matt blushed. “Besides, you didn't seem to mind," he added, smirking.

“Shut up.” Jeremy lightly punched Matt's shoulder as a blush spread across his face.

They walked into the village and passed a few shops that were closing up for the night. Jeremy asked a passing villager for directions to the nearest inn and they slowly made their way to it. They entered the nearly empty building and Jeremy walked up to the counter to request a room for the night. 

“We just need a single room?” Jeremy asked the older woman at the counter, who seemed way too happy to be working this late.

“Of course! Are you two passing through?” she asked, while grabbing the guest book from under the counter.

“Yeah, we just crossed an ocean, so we're pretty tired." He watched her flip through the pages.

“Oh? Did you cross by yourselves?” 

“Yeah, but it's fine, we took turns rowing, so ya know. Not that bad I guess?”

“Oh how sweet, I've always wanted to travel,” she sighed.

“Yeah, I'm glad he came along, otherwise this trip would have been awful.” Jeremy turned to look at Matt, who had sat down on the nearby couch. He looked like he was trying not to fall asleep, but his head kept falling. Jeremy couldn't help but smile.

“Oh!” she said suddenly. “Oh… you two are adorable." She set the book on the table and turned it to face Jeremy, holding out a pen. “Anyway dear, I just need you to sign here.”

“Cool.” Jeremy quickly signed in himself and Matt. She handed him the key and directed him to the room. 

“Thank you!" Jeremy walked to where Matt was sleeping and nudged him awake. “Come on man, bed, let's go.”

“Alright,” Matt said, not moving.

“Alright, come on,” Jeremy grabbed Matt's arm, pulling him up, “I want to sleep in a bed, and I'm pretty sure you do too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments and suggestions, I appreciate all of it.


	25. The room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy and Matt get ready for bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to CWoC and anyone who leaves a comment. I appreciate the support!

“...I just realized I forgot to tell her two beds.” They had walked into the room and stopped in the doorway as soon as they realized there was only one bed. The rest of the room was pretty plain. There was a window across from the door and the bed itself was set under it, in between two nightstands, one with a little vase of flowers. There were a couple of Redstone lamps on the corners of the room that lit up when they opened the door. All in all a very lovely room. 

“I could go ask her for another room?” Jeremy suggested.

“I don't care honestly,” Matt said, crossing the room to sit on the edge of the bed. “I'll probably be a cat again anyways." He took off his boots and left them beside the bed as he worked off his gloves.

“Why?” Jeremy finally crossed the room to sit with him, setting his bag next to the bed. “Is it that much better than being a person?” 

“Not really, but it helped I guess?” Matt took off his bag and set it next to his boot.

“Did you just want to cuddle?” Jeremy teased, working off his boots.

“Shut the fuck up,” Matt laughed, “We're gonna run this into the ground.”

“Besides, I don't think it's a great idea for you to be a cat here.”

“Hm?”

“I don't want housekeeping to come in and be like ‘Oh a cat better take it outside’ and then toss you out.”

“What? People just walk in while you're sleeping?”

“Oh yeah, so at places like this they have people to clean up the rooms for you so they're always clean, and they usually come in the morning, so we might still be sleeping.”

“...Weird, but sure.” Matt looked too tired to really ask questions, so he moved on and laid back. ”Does that mean I have to wear my gloves? Cause I already took them off.”

“I think you'll be fine.” Jeremy laid back next to Matt and they both looked at the ceiling for a second. “Alright,” Jeremy groaned, getting up from the bed, “I'm gonna turn off the lights in a second so take off your cloak ya freak.” 

“I'm not a freak, I'm a dragon,” Matt said, sitting up and untying his cloak from his shoulders.

Jeremy shut off the lights and walked back to the bed, pulling at the covers. “Get up, I want to sleep under the blankets," he laughed.

Matt groaned, “Fine, but share.” He moved under the covers next to Jeremy, and they both laid down with a small gap in between them. 

They were both silent for a few minutes before Jeremy's eyes snapped open. “She thought we were a couple!”

Matt turned onto his side, facing Jeremy with his eyes still closed. “Everyone thinks we're a couple.”

“Before it was just my friends, but now it's like strangers think we're dating!” Jeremy exclaimed, turning to face Matt.

“Oh,” Matt said, “Oh, shit. That's hilarious." He finally opened his eyes and looked at Jeremy. “What do we do?” he said with a smile on his face.

“I don't think you're taking this seriously Matt,” Jeremy said, smiling as well.

“What do you want me to do Jeremy? I'm tired,” he yawned.

“I don't know! There's not even something we could do about it, we're already in bed." Jeremy's face lit up at his own phrasing, and for a moment he was worried Matt could see it in the dark.

“I mean, it's not like it really matters, does it? It's like, one lady, and what are we gonna say anyway? Hey, thanks for the room, by the way we're not a couple.” Matt shrugged and closed his eyes, settling back in bed. “Just go to bed, we'll freak out tomorrow, k?”

“We can't tell any of the others, we will never live this down.” Jeremy settled back in bed, relaxing a little.

“You. You will never live this down, I didn't even talk to her. If she thought we were a couple it's because of what you said.”

“If I go down you're coming with me, I'm not the one who cuddled up last night.”

Matt put a hand over Jeremy's face, effectively shutting him up. “Enough out of you.”

Jeremy decided to let it go for now, pushing Matt's hand down so it rested on his chest. Matt didn't move it and after a few minutes seemed to fall asleep. Jeremy thought about moving his arm back, but decided if it helped Matt sleep it was probably be best to leave it there. At least that's what he told himself before falling asleep with his hand on top of Matt's.


	26. Try a Cookie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Jeremy get ready to fly and stop for a cookie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I was gone so long, I have no excuse. But I'm back! Thank you for your patience!

As Jeremy woke slowly he felt a heat near his side. It would suddenly stop before coming back again. “What?” he mumbled, squinting open his eyes to see Matt laying down on his back, holding a torch in one hand and covering it with the other. He watched it fizzle out slowly before taking his hand off and letting the fire come back up while he waited for Jeremy to wake up.

“What are you doing?” Jeremy said, louder this time, catching Matt's attention.

Matt jumped before looking over at Jeremy. “Oh, you're up. I wanted to see if I'm fireproof, and you were still sleeping, so." He sounded excited. He blew out the torch flame and put it down off to the side of the bed

“Cool… but what if you set your hand on fire? And why are you doing that right now?” Jeremy shifted, sitting up.

“I was waiting for you to get up,” Matt answered, sitting up as well. “I got bored so I thought, well, if I do burn myself Jeremy is right here, so I'll just wake him up. Besides, I didn't start out with my whole hand, I just, ya know. Poked it.

“Oh yeah,” Jeremy yawned, “Just burn yourself a little, much better.”

“See, I know what I'm doing,” laughed Matt.

“Sure Matt. Anyway, let's go get some breakfast, I'm starving.”

They both got dressed and made their way to the front desk. This time there was a young boy half-awake at the desk, instead of the women from last night. As Jeremy signed them out and paid for their stay the teenager mumbled “Have a good day,” with barely opened eyes.

Leaving the inn they passed a bakery. “Oh hey, want to get cookies?” asked Jeremy, stopping in front of the doors.

“What?” Matt asked, looking into the bakery.

“They're uh, sweet… bread? Things? Let's just go get some, you can try it for yourself.”

They went inside and were immediately met with the sweet smell of freshly baked cookies and other sugary products. The counter was managed by a man with an apron on, cleaning off the counter. “Hey, how can I help you boys?” His voice was surprisingly loud for the morning and Matt stood a little closer to Jeremy subconsciously.

“Yeah, can we get, uh, two cookies?” Jeremy asked, pulling out some gold bits before the man stopped him with a wave of his hand.

“Don't worry about it, it's on the house.” He smiled and caged two cookies, handing them to Jeremy. “You boys have a good day.”

“Thanks!” Jeremy called as he and Matt exited the bakery. 

Leaving the front of the shop, Jeremy pulled out a cookie and handed it to Matt before pulling out his own. After taking a bite of his own Matt looked down at his before asking, “Why'd he just give us these?”

“I don't know, he might have been in a good mood or something, it's just a nice thing people do sometimes,” Jeremy said as they walked down the road. “Dude, just eat your cookie, they're better warm.”

Matt looked back at his cookie and took a small bite. Jeremy watched as his eyes seemed to expand like a happy cat's before he devoured the entire thing. “Holy fuck, that was delicious. We should go get more!” He turned to Jeremy with a giant smile on his face.

“No, sorry, we gotta go Matt,” Jeremy said. “I don't want to spend a whole day eating cookies. When this is over though we'll get some more, alright?” He looked back at Matt who slumped his shoulders in response. Jeremy looked down at his own half-finished cookie and broke off a small chunk before handing it over to Matt. “Here, you big baby.”

“Aww, Jerem. You do care,” Matt said. They both burst into laughter and bumped shoulders.  
\------------  
After walking a far enough distance from the village, Matt and Jeremy stopped. “You didn't happen to see anything close to a desert while you flew around, did you?”

“Nope.”

“So no idea how long we'll be flying?”

“No.”

“... I'm gonna hate this.”

“It'll be okay,” Matt said and patted his shoulders. He took off his cloak and shoved it in his bag. “I'll try just walking until you get used to it, then I'll fly close to the ground?”

“Ok, ok, yeah. That's good. I'll be fine.” Jeremy shook out his arms and took Matt's bag from him.

“Are you sure?” 'Cause you look a little… freaked out?” Matt asked, concern obvious on his face.

“No, but it's fine. Now hurry up before I change my mind.” 

Matt quickly changed out of his clothes and changed to his dragon form. He shook out his body and gave his wings a small flap before stretching like a cat. He layed down and looked expectantly at Jeremy.

“You know, I'm starting to wonder why people are scared of dragons. You're just one big cat.” Jeremy laughed as Matt flicked him with his tail, blowing smoke from his nose. “What! You know I'm right.”

Looking at Matt, Jeremy finally came closer. “Ok, should I just? Climb your back? How do you want to do this?” Matt rolled his eyes and pushed Jeremy up to his arm. “Oh, ok. Here we go.” Jeremy grabbed onto Matt's long feathers and pulled himself up until he sat in between Matt's wings. The feathers themselves were surprisingly soft in his hands, and Jeremy took a second to run his hands through them. “Alright, I'm good.”

Matt let out a trill before slowly getting to his feet. He looked back at Jeremy to make sure he was secure before moving forward. Jeremy immediately tensed up and tightened his grip on Matt's feathers. He suddenly realized how Matt must have felt in the boat and immediately felt bad. If Matt could do that, though, he should be fine to do this.

“Ok, so I think we should keep heading in the same direction for right now. At least until we reach the next island, which will probably be soon given our luck so far.” 

In response, Matt let out another trill.

“...Yeah, I have no idea what that means?”

Matt let out a groan.

“Aren't you magic? Isn't there any magic way for us to communicate?”

Matt let out what sounded like a thoughtful trill.

“...What?”

This trill sounded frustrated.

“...Alright, good talk buddy." Jeremy patted Matt's feathers. He received another groan in response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your comments! they were literally part of the reason I'm back!


	27. Flying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy tries flying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all comments and especially thank you to CWoC!

They've been walking for a while, and Jeremy had finally started to loosen his grip on Matt's feathers when he hears, ‘Hey Jeremy?’

Immediately tightening his grip again, Jeremy responded, “What the fuck!?” because what else do you say when someone else's voice pops into your head? "Matt?” he asked cautiously.

Matt turned his head to look back at Jeremy, stopping in his tracks. ‘Holy shit, it finally worked?!’ As Jeremy heard this Matt let out a happy trill.

“Is that you?! How are you doing that?” Jeremy asked.

‘Fucking, I've been trying to do this the whole time we've been walking. This is gonna be so much easier now.’

“This is amazing! Wait… Can you hear my thoughts?” Jeremy asked cautiously. Not that he had anything to hide from Matt… probably.

‘I don't know? Think at me.’

“Ok,” Jeremy said, ‘Can you hear me?’

‘...Did you do it?’

“I don't think it works two ways,” Jeremy said, mentally wiping his forehead.

‘Eh, at least we can talk now,’ Matt said, turning his head back around and continuing his walk. ‘By the way, do you think you're ready for me to try flying a little? Cause I'm seeing some more water up ahead.’

Jeremy took a second before responding. “Yeah?” he said hesitantly, “You're not gonna go super high up right?”

‘Nah, I'll just glide as close to the ground as I can. Uh, though I'm probably gonna start out a little higher at first, then I'll swoop down right after. Think that'll be ok?’ Matt stopped to turn his head back to Jeremy. 

“I think? Can you give me a heads up or something? I'm like, terrified of falling off.” Jeremy let out an uncomfortable laugh.

‘Ok, it’ll be fine. Please don't rip off all my feathers though.' Matt let out the best laugh he could in this form before turning back around. He started walking again, but this time he slowly started to speed up. 'I'm about to take off, so heads up.’ Matt spreads his wings, giving a small flap but not yet taking off. ‘You ready?’

Jeremy tightened his grip and buried his face in Matt's feathers, “Yeah! No, I'll be ok!” 

‘You sure? Cause I think you're ripping up a bald spot.’ 

“Please, just get this over with!” Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could.

‘Alright, here we go!’ Matt flapped his wings, finally lifting himself off the ground. He swooped up for a few moments before quickly letting himself fall and glide across the ground, leaving enough room to flap his wings again to keep himself leveled. ‘How are you feeling?’

“I'm fucking going to die!” Jeremy yelled, keeping his eyes shut.

‘You're fine, look, I can see the next ocean. After we cross it I'll put you back down.’

Jeremy peeked an eye open, looking between the feathers flapping in his face. Beyond the feathers, he watched as the world literally flew by. The meadows they passed were littered with flowers and the occasional tree. “Whoa,” Jeremy whispered. He let out a small gasp, watching as a herd of horses raced under them.

‘You good?’ Matt called back to him.

“This looks so cool!” Jeremy called over the howling wind.

‘Yeah?’ Matt flapped his wings to steady himself. ‘That's good, means I get to keep my feathers.’

“Yeah. Minus all the ones I already ripped out.” Jeremy held up his hand, holding up a couple of feathers he had accidentally ripped out when Matt swooped up. 

‘Jeremy! You asshole!’ Matt let out a disgruntled trill. ‘See what happens next time you need help finding a desert.’

Jeremy laughed, grabbing back on to Matt's feathers and looking back at the horizon. Looking out now, he almost wished they had done this from the start of the journey. That was until Matt flapped his wings, lifting them higher in the air for a second before settling himself again. Jeremy quickly tightened his grip again, hiding his face in Matt's feathers. “Fuck, this is somehow the best and worse thing ever!” Jeremy yelled.

Matt cooed. ‘Heh, yeah. Now you get what it was like in the boat for me.’ 

“I know, I know! Just call me when it's over!”

‘It's fine, we're about to cross the ocean.’

“Do you see the next island?”

‘Yeah! And Jeremy, look!’

Jeremy slowly opened his eyes, watching the waves roll under them before looking forward at a sandy beach. A very sandy beach, with a small green dot in the distance. “Oh fuck! We've done it! Finally!” Jeremy yelled, lifting his fist in the air before quickly grabbing back onto Matt's feathers. He could hear Matt laughing at him over the wind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	28. Sand Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt and Jeremy meet someone in the desert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the support and especially to CWoC!

Jeremy tightened his grip while Matt beat his wings to land, kicking up a small sandstorm. ‘All good Jerem?’ Matt asked, turning his head to look at Jeremy, who had buried his head back into the feathers.

“Yeah, just gimme a second.” Finally Jeremy loosened his grip. Seeing him relax, Matt laid down to let Jeremy get off. 

‘You sure? You look like you're gonna faint,’ Matt asked, watching Jeremy step onto the sand with wobbly feet.

“Fuck off!” Jeremy yelled, grabbing Matt's bag from his shoulder and holding it out for him. 

Matt then transformed into his human self and grabbed it from him. He pulled out his cloak and wrapped it around his shoulders to cover himself up. “So are we just gonna grab the cactus and go?” he asked.

“I wanna grab a few so that I can make a farm when we get back. I don't want to have to do this again,” Jeremy said, walking to the nearest cactus plant. As he did, the sand around him started to shift. Matt looked closely at the sand before following him, but after taking a step the ground rumbled.

“What the hell?” Jeremy said, looking back at Matt who was staring intently at the ground before suddenly widening his eyes. He didn't even look up before changing his shape back into a dragon and tackling Jeremy, throwing him farther away onto a hill of calmer sand. Jeremy distantly realized that Matt had ripped his cloak, but was more distracted by the sand exploding where he had been standing a few moments ago. Matt turned to hiss and stood over Jeremy, protecting him from their would-be attacker.

After the sand cleared there now stood a sand dragon. Its scales were the perfect color to blend in, and had it not been hissing at Matt and Jeremy with its long blue tongue it would have been impossible to distinguish from the desert. Wingless, the dragon stood on six short legs, giving off a lizard-like appearance. While it didn't quite reach Matt in terms of height, it was definitely longer. Suddenly it roared at them, making Jeremy drop out of his stupor and look up at Matt. ‘Ok, Jeremy. We may have accidentally stumbled into his territory so I'm gonna need you to be quick about this.’

“What? What do you mean?” Jeremy called, getting to his feet.

‘This guy is being an ASSHOLE!’ Matt roared at the Sand Dragon, ‘So grab the nearest cactus and then I'm gonna grab you, ok?’

“What are you gonna do?!” Jeremy asked, looking for the cactus closest to them that wasn't crushed by their dodge.

‘Hopefully distract him, 'cause I am not a fighter. Go!’ Matt took a deep breath before sending flames at the dragon, who hissed and buried itself in the sand.

Jeremy took the opportunity to run off over a sandhill, tripping and rolling before quickly righting himself. Behind him the sand dragon jumped out of the sand, surprising Matt by landing on top of his back. It used two of its limbs to pin down Matt's wings, using the others to scratch at him, ripping up his feathers. Matt quickly turned his head, biting onto the other's neck and flipping them both so that the dragon was crushed under his back.

Meanwhile, Jeremy had found an uncrushed cactus and managed to ignore the hissing and roaring behind him to cut the cactus at the base of its stem and shove the whole thing in his bag. While he'd prefer getting a couple more, he knew better than to prolong this. Turning back to the fight, he watched as the sand dragon took Matt's leg in its teeth and whipped him to the side. Now with a distance between them, it turned to look directly at Jeremy and screeched. It skittered after him, giving Jeremy seconds to pull his sword from his bag. It stopped in front of him, lifting one of its legs to strike him, but Jeremy managed to roll out of the way in time. Jeremy ran under the dragon's stomach, having to duck under its body, and slashed at its legs.

‘Jeremy!’ Looking up from where Jeremy had run out from under the dragon, he saw Matt quickly flying towards them. The sand dragon turned to hiss, about to try and attack Jeremy again, before Matt landed directly on them. Matt screeched in its face, almost deafening Jeremy, before turning and scooping up Jeremy in his jaw. With one powerful beat of his wings, Matt flew into the air and swooped quickly to the nearest island.

The landing was less than perfect; Matt stumbled, landing on his injured leg, but dropped down, letting Jeremy fall from his jaw. ‘Sorry about the landing. Think he got my leg a little?’ Matt breathed heavily, looking at his paw.

Jeremy stumbled on the ground, trying to right himself before finally sitting down and looking back at Matt. “Holy fuck,” Jeremy said, scrubbing his hands down his face, “That was intense.” 

Matt laid on his side, trying to catch his breath. ‘You can say that again. Please tell me you got the cactus?’ 

“Yeah,” Jeremy said, before looking at Matt's bitten leg. “Are you ok? That doesn't look good,” he said as he got up to take a closer look.

The bite deep in Matt's front right leg was dripping with blood, slowly creating a small pool under him. The wound also dripped with a blue liquid that tinged Matt's blood. “Matt? Are you feeling alright?” Jeremy asked cautiously.

‘I feel like I fought a dragon, why do you ask?’ Matt deadpanned, peaking an eye open to look at Jeremy.

“I'm not an expert, but I think we should fix up this bite, and preferably now.”

Matt leaned his head up to look closely at the bite. 'Oh fuck, that doesn't look good.’

“Yeah, and normally I would say wash it off so I could use a health potion, but water would make it worse for you, and I'm panicking a little,” Jeremy said with wide eyes.

‘Jeremy, you want to take a breath before you pass out? I feel like I should be the one panicking here,’ Matt said, tilting his head.

“I'm cool. Uh, what do you use instead of water?” Jeremy asked, scrubbing at his face. Before Matt could respond Jeremy had already begun talking again. "I think you told me lava once? You said it when we went to the café, I think. So I should find some lava, but that's usually underground, so I don't know where I'm gonna find it," Jeremy rambled.

‘JEREMY!’ Matt called to get his attention, finally ending his rambling. ‘Relax. Also, if you would calm down you'd see that there is lava like right over there.’ Matt pointed his head toward the above ground pool of lava just a little ways away from where they stood.

“Oh.”


	29. Dammit Matt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt forgot his things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost forgot to upload this.

“What's it like to sit in lava?” Jeremy asked, sitting next to the pool that Matt laid in. The lava pool wasn't particularly big, so Matt's head and tail mostly hung out and laid across the ground.

‘Hmmm. It's like, warm? And kinda like being under a really heavy blanket? I guess I don't know,' Matt hummed.

“Thanks, Matt, super helpful,” Jeremy laughed, pulling his shredded bag to him. The cactus had ripped a few holes when Jeremy haphazardly shoved it in. He rummaged through and took out a health potion. “Hey gimme your arm, I'm gonna use a health potion.”

‘Well, how would you describe sitting in water?’ Matt said, lifting his injured leg out of the lava, careful to not splash Jeremy setting it in front of him.

“That's… a good point. I'd probably say the same thing honestly.” Jeremy stood up and tossed a splash health potion on Matt's leg. 

Matt immediately picked up his head and looked at his injury, watching it heal up quickly. ‘Huh, it's all tingly? Kinda feels like when I use magic.’

“Yeah? I guess that makes sense, it's like the closest people can get to magic,” Jeremy shrugged, looking over Matts now healed injury. The wound had closed up fine but the scales that were there were gone, leaving pink skin unprotected. “Are your scales gonna grow back?” Jeremy asked, running his hand over the scar.

Matt's reaction was immediate; he cooed lowly, sounding almost like a purr, and brought his head closer to Jeremy. Jeremy quickly lifted his hand and they both looked at each other with wide eyes. ‘Can we both pretend that never happened?’ Matt asked.

“Ya know,” Jeremy smirked “I would, but I think it'd be good to know that dragons purr like cats. I think it would help if I tell the others just in case, I don't know, a dragon attacks?” Jeremy started laughing.

‘I'm leaving you here,’ Matt said, standing from his pool and walking back to where they originally landed. 

Jeremy, still laughing, called after him, “No! Wait, come back!” 

Matt stopped and looked around, before turning back to a giggling Jeremy. ‘Ok so- Stop laughing it's not that funny.’

“It kinda is.”

Matt rolled his eyes, ‘Whatever, just help me find my bag. You had it, right?’

“Yeah, I think? Wait, no, I handed it to you before- Oh! Oh no,” Jeremy looked at the sandy beach across the river, “I gave it back to you before the other dragon attacked us.”

Matt's eyes widened and his pupils seemed to shrink to slits before he looked across the river. ‘My things are still on that beach.’ 

Without looking back at Jeremy he opened his wings and took off, leaving Jeremy alone on the beach and calling after him. “Wait! Matt!” But he was already gone.

“Ok! Ok I should… get the boat,” Jeremy said to himself, rubbing at his forehead in panic. “Goddammit Matt, you couldn't have at least told me the plan!” he said while he quickly ran over to his bag and took out the boat, then rushed back to the coast with his things. Getting in, he made his way back to the desert isle as fast as he could. After what felt like an eternity he made it back to the beach and saw Matt hovering in the air. He was looking at his bag and the threads of his cloak being guarded by the angry sand dragon that hissed and spat anytime Matt flew too close.

Looking into his bag Jeremy searched for anything useful, but most of what he had was meant for the journey and his only defense was his sword. But maybe he could just try to grab Matt's things without being spotted? Jeremy stood carefully in the boat so as to not tip it over and gently set a foot down on the beach. He looked back at the fighting dragons, but neither acknowledged him. He slowly made his way over to the dragons, leaving behind everything but his sword, which he gripped tightly in his hand. He finally stood close enough to reach the bag and cloak and grabbed them both, putting the bag around his shoulders and gripping tightly onto the cloak.

He looked back to the sand dragon to make sure he could get away without being spotted. Luckily, Matt seemed to have its entire focus. Jeremy carefully started backing up, watching the sand dragon stand on his legs to try and swipe at Matt's tail with its stubby arms, only for Matt to duck out the way and screech at them. 

Before he got to his boat, the sand dragon paced under Matt in a half circle but stopped, spotting Jeremy with the bag in hand. “Ah Fuck,” Jeremy said, turning quickly and racing as fast as he could back to his boat. 

The dragon screamed and started running after him. Matt quickly swooped down and landed on the dragon's back, giving Jeremy enough time to get in the boat. The sand dragon roared, trying to buck Matt off his back, smacking Matt’s side with his tail. Matt hissed lowly and flew off after Jeremy, leaving the sand dragon behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to CWoC for editing and anyone who leaves a comment!

**Author's Note:**

> based roughly on Ryan the Dragon The Knight fanfic, give it a read it's very good!


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